The Pope has criticised world leaders who spend billions on wars. This comes just days after US president and all-around fucking dickhead Donald Trump depicted himself as Jesus on Truth Social.

Trump vs Pope

American-born Pope Leo has been critical of Trump and the genocide he and Israel are committing. He rightly made Trump look like an absolute cock with the most grace by saying:

War divides; hope unites. Arrogance tramples upon others; love lifts up. Idolatry blinds us; the living God enlightens. All it takes is a little faith, a mere “crumb” of faith, in order to face this dramatic hour in history together — as humanity and alongside humanity. #Peace

On 13 April, Trump attacked the Pope in a lengthy post. As Canary reporter Willem Moore said, feel free to read it all if you’ve got a spare 10 minutes and don’t respect your own time.

This will end well.

Some genius in Trumpland decided, “Hey, the best thing we can do now is to go to war with the Holy Father.” pic.twitter.com/zYG3IuNivB

Advertisement

— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) April 13, 2026

The paedophile president followed that up by posting the now-infamous AI image:

Trump is now posting AI images of himself as Jesus Christ healing, what appears to be, a young Jeffrey Epstein. pic.twitter.com/zG2OQKbP9s

— Harry Sisson (@harryjsisson) April 13, 2026

Surreal

The Pope responded to Trump’s latest outburst with:

I don’t ‌think that the message of the Gospel is meant to be abused in ‌the way that some people are doing.

I will continue to speak out loudly against war, looking to promote peace, ⁠promoting dialogue and multilateral ​relationships among the states to look ​for just solutions to problems.

After much criticism from his own supporters, Trump deleted the post. He then tried to claim he was actually supposed to be a doctor, not Jesus. Because doctors typically place their hands on their patients’ foreheads and heal them with light, don’t they?

He also of course, blamed the ‘fake news’:

Reporter: Did you post that picture of yourself depicted as Jesus Christ?

Trump: It wasn’t a depiction. I did post it and I thought it was me as a doctor. And had to do with red cross as a red cross worker, which we support and only the fake news could come up with that one. pic.twitter.com/7Y1u86GjkP

Advertisement

— Acyn (@Acyn) April 13, 2026

As the Canary also reported, JD Vance also tried it with the Pope, but got heckled in the process. Maybe you should just go pay him a visit, JD, it worked with the last one.

Now, on his tour of Cameroon, Pope Leo is doubling down on calling out genocide.

He criticised leaders who:

turn a blind eye to the fact that billions of dollars are spent on killing and devastation, yet the resources needed for healing, education and restoration are nowhere to ​be found.

He continued:

The masters of war pretend not to know that it takes only a moment to destroy, yet often a lifetime is not enough to rebuild

Speaking to crowds, he said the world was ‘being ravaged by a handful of tyrants’ and that in Cameroon in particular there was ‘an endless cycle of destabilisation and death’.

Fresh off the back of his speech, the Pope tweeted another message which was blatantly aimed at Trump:

Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic, and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth

It’s clear that the Pope will not be intimidated by pathetic little men like Trump, now if only other leaders like Keir Starmer could follow in his wake.

Though it will never not be fucking ridiculous that the bloody pope subtweets the president of the United States.

Featured image via the Canary

By Rachel Charlton-Dailey

Source link

With the local elections fast approaching, Reform would ideally like to see their polling go up. Instead, they just lost a sixth of their supporters in one week according to More in Common:

Reform drops to 25% in this weeks voting intention their lowest since April 2025. They lead the Tories by 3 & Labour by 4

REF UK 25% (-5)
CON 22% (+3)
LAB 21% (+1)
GREEN 13% (+1)
LIB DEM 12% (nc)
OTH 3% (nc)
SNP 2% (nc)

N = 2,011 | 10-13/4 | Change w/ 8/4 pic.twitter.com/DNZVf9Incv

— Luke Tryl (@LukeTryl) April 15, 2026

Advertisement

This is particularly embarrassing for Reform as the pollster More in Common is linked to their party:

Well of course Miles Jones, Reform UK’s Deputy Leader in Bexley works for pollster More in Common… pic.twitter.com/xMR8nOwyq3

— Reform Party UK Exposed (@reformexposed) April 3, 2026

Reform plummet

Of course, we can’t trust polls by themselves. The fact that different pollsters get such wildly different results is testament to that. In the above, More in Common have the Greens at 13%; several other pollsters regularly have them outperforming Labour:

POLL | Reform lead by 6pts

Ref: 26% (+1)
Grn: 20% (=)
Con: 17% (=)
Lab: 16% (=)
Lib: 11% (=)

— Seats —
Ref: 323
Grn: 108
Lib: 77
Con: 48
SNP: 47
Lab: 12
Plaid: 8

Poll: @FindoutnowUK, 15 Apr (+/- vs 8 Apr) pic.twitter.com/5um8xYOZyi

— Stats for Lefties (@LeftieStats) April 16, 2026

POLL | Reform lead by 5pts

Ref: 24% (=)
Con: 19% (=)
Grn: 18% (+2)
Lab: 17% (+1)
Lib: 13% (=)
Res: 4% (=)
YP: 0% (-1)

— Seats —
Ref: 282
Grn: 91
Con: 83
Lib: 81
SNP: 47
Lab: 34

Poll: @YouGov, 12-13 Apr (+/- vs 7 Apr) pic.twitter.com/m0PQxoBh26

— Stats for Lefties (@LeftieStats) April 14, 2026

At the same time, a sudden drop with a pollster can indicate that something is amiss for a party (that or something is amiss with the pollster).

Looking at Politico’s Poll of the Polls, we can see that averaged out Reform are down six percentage points from where they were six months ago:

It’s no wonder Reform are losing support. The following are just some of the stories we’ve reported on in the runup to the local elections:

• Reform activist said ‘Hitler was right’.
• Reform candidate wants to ‘tear down’ the NHS.
• Reform candidate exposed as a horny nincompoop.
• Day One Reform activist accuses party of ‘sewer’ politics in explosive resignation letter.
• Farage heckled at Reform’s Jimmy Saville-aping London launch.

A fish rots from the head

On 13 April, Farage announced his partnership with Stack BTC. As part of this, he purchased an unseemly quantity of Bitcoin – i.e. the digital money which you can’t use to buy everyday things but you can use to scam people:

BREAKING: Nigel Farage has purchased £2m of Bitcoin for Stack BTC – becoming the first sitting MP and the first UK political party leader in history to publicly buy Bitcoin.

A landmark moment for Bitcoin in British politics.$STAK @Nigel_Farage @blockchain @kwasi_stackbtc… pic.twitter.com/O614kKe5TN

Advertisement

— Stack BTC (@stackbtc_) April 13, 2026

Farage bought the crypto from a company linked to Kwasi Kwarteng – the chancellor who delivered Liz Truss’s disastrous budget (the one which led to rampant inflation we never recovered from).

Journalist Fraser Nelson accused Kwarteng and Farage of working together to generate “hype” for their own benefit:

No, Kwasi: your company gave Farage a sweetheart deal. A bonus he can exercise in just two years. Ordinary shareholders don't have this.

The penny-share nature of your firm means Farage is already ~£200k up (+93%). With crypto, hype creates value. https://t.co/maRks88jMO https://t.co/5v9a9j7m5K

— Fraser Nelson (@FraserNelson) April 13, 2026

Hype is what made crypto what it is.

The value of BitCoin kept going up because people kept buying it. Those who bought early made bank; those who bought late did not.

In other words, there was a pyramid-like shape to the affair.

Because of the nature of triangle-shaped ventures, it became harder and harder to get people to buy in. Resultantly, BitCoin’s value has plummeted in the past six months:

Crypto holders need the value to keep going up – hence the promotional deals like this one with Farage.

Lib Dems are challenging the Farage Crypto dealings with the FCA https://t.co/L8LEGTpV0y

— dave lawrence (@dave43law) April 13, 2026

A long way to go

Reform UK have certainly lost support, but we need to make sure they lose more.

Whether it’s jumping into bed with dodgy donors or sucking up to Trump, this party is trouble.

We just don’t want the public to realise too late that Farage and co never had their best interests at heart.

Featured image via Canva

By Willem Moore

Source link

The BBC has confirmed Israel is demolishing hundreds of homes in southern Lebanon. Yet the corporation left out some key context: home demolitions are a part of an explicitly genocidal strategy know as the Dahiya doctrine.

BBC Verify used satellite imagery to confirm hundreds of homes had been deliberately destroyed with airstrikes or Israeli occupation force (IOF) demolition teams on the ground.

The BBC report said:

BBC Verify analysis found more than 1,400 buildings had been destroyed since 2 March based on verified visual evidence.

This is just a snapshot of the overall damage caused by Israeli air strikes and demolitions, because of limited access on the ground and available satellite imagery.

Advertisement

The reported acknowledged that the “true scale” is likely to be “much higher”.

The BBC did report some of the context:

Israel’s levelling of these structures comes after Defence Minister Israel Katz’s order on 22 March to “accelerate the destruction of Lebanese homes” near the Israeli border based on the “model in Gaza” as part of its campaign against Hezbollah.

Adding that:

The systematic demolition of these towns and villages may amount to a war crime, international law experts told BBC Verify.

And to their credit (for once) the BBC noted that Israel provided no evidence:

that Hezbollah has embedded military infrastructure within civilian areas in the region.

But there is still a lot missing from their report…

Lebanon: vital context

Here’s a breakdown of how we actually got here – usually missing from legacy media reporting.

Israel violated the US-brokered Lebanon 2024 ‘ceasefire’ over 15,400 times since it was signed. Must be a world record. Yet a short salvo from Hezbollah in early March 2026 was framed as a signal outrage by legacy media. That attack has been cited by the settler-colonial state as a pretext to invade.

Not satisfied with pulling the US and its allies into a runaway war with Iran, Israeli troops have pushed into Lebanon with airstrikes pummelling the capital Beirut.

The Canary reported the early moments of the new war here. You can read about the secretive Israel-US ‘side letter’ pact which gave Israel carte blanche to keep bombing through the ‘ceasefire’ here. And our extensive coverage of Israel’s ceasefire regular breaches here.

But there’s more…

Dayiha scorched earth doctrine

The so-called Dayiha doctrine was born in Lebanon and sharpened over many years. This scorched earth approach to ‘counter-insurgency’ found its fullest expression in Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza. Now it is back where it began: Lebanon’s combative south.

As the Canary reported on 6 March, just days into the new Israel invasion, peace and conflict expert professor Paul Rogers explained the history and character of the doctrine particularly well in the context of Gaza in December 2023. Surveying the early devastation in the enclave, he said the horror spoke to a:

specific Israeli way of war that has evolved since 1948, through to its current Dahiya doctrine, which is said to have originated in the 2006 war in Lebanon.

Rogers said:

In July of that year [2006], facing salvoes of rockets fired from southern Lebanon by Hezbollah militias, the IDF fought an intense air and ground war.

However:

Neither succeeded, and the ground troops took heavy casualties; but the significance of the war lies in the nature of the air attacks. It was directed at centres of Hezbollah power in the Dahiya area, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, but also on the Lebanese economic infrastructure.

It was there in Dahiya that Israel’s genocidal impulses mutated into a new policy of annihilation.

As Rogers explains:

This was the deliberate application of “disproportionate force”, such as the destruction of an entire village, if deemed to be the source of rocket fire.

One graphic description of the result was that “around a thousand Lebanese civilians were killed, a third of them children. Towns and villages were reduced to rubble; bridges, sewage treatment plants, port facilities and electric power plants were crippled or destroyed.”

This “deliberate application” of massive Israeli violence goes far beyond fighting ‘terrorists’ and aims to destroy the very means of life. 

As we always make sure to point out, Israel’s ambitions in Lebanon are not and have never been ‘defensive’. In the Zionist fever-dream of a Greater Israel, Lebanon is already theirs. So are large parts of other neighboring countries. The application of the latest version of the Dahiya doctrine to Lebanon is just the last expression of this Western-backed colonialist yearning.

Featured image via the Canary

By Joe Glenton

Source link

Polling suggests that Labour are facing a wipeout in the upcoming local elections. As these elections will also see votes in the Scottish and Welsh assemblies, this could see the party of government reduced to a movement which doesn’t exist outside England:

Labour is projected to collapse to just 15% of seats in the Senedd, after hovering around 50% since it was formed.

Plaid Cymru is to achieve its best result ever of 37 seats (39%)

Greens and Reform are to enter the Senedd for the first time, on 4 (4%) and 29 (30%) respectively. pic.twitter.com/asVJwkLuep

Advertisement

— cez (@cezthesocialist) April 16, 2026

Labour collapse

Pollsters have been predicting that the party faces oblivion in the Senedd (Welsh parliament) for a while:

Senedd poll | Plaid lead by 3pts

Plaid: 30% (+1)
Ref: 27% (=)
Lab: 17% (-3)
Grn: 11% (+4)
Con: 9% (-1)
Lib: 6% (+1)

— Seats —
Plaid: 36
Ref: 33
Lab: 15
Grn: 6
Con: 4
Lib: 2

Poll: @BeaufortLtd, 2-22 Mar (+/- vs 8 Feb) pic.twitter.com/rpFcgNTw6i

— Stats for Lefties (@LeftieStats) April 1, 2026

Senedd poll | Plaid Cymru lead by 6pts

Plaid: 33% (-4)
Ref: 27% (+4)
Lab: 13% (+3)
Grn: 12% (-1)
Con: 7% (-3)
Lib: 5% (=)

— Seats —
Plaid: 41
Ref: 33
Lab: 11
Grn: 9
Con: 1
Lib: 1

Poll: @YouGov, 9-18 Mar (+/- vs 12 Jan) pic.twitter.com/OYI93UgBsr

Advertisement

— Stats for Lefties (@LeftieStats) March 24, 2026

The leading party is Plaid Cymru, which is a nationalist party that wants to achieve Welsh independence. The fact that Plaid are doing well shows many Welsh voters are coming around to the party’s way of thinking.

Instead of offering a positive alternative, Starmer’s party are putting out materials like the following:

Labour has literally governed with Plaid. Meanwhile Reform are Nazis, apparently. Stop them!

But you governed with a party which you’re claiming is…the same?

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) April 15, 2026

We saw an example of Labour’s fading Welsh fortunes in the Caerphilly by-election of October 2025:

Composition of the Senedd after by-election:

LAB – 29 (-1)
CON – 14 (-)
PLAID – 13 (+1)
IND – 2 (-)
LD – 1 (-)
REF – 1 (-)

Labour no longer has a working majority. pic.twitter.com/bJPrQ2V1dc

— Stats for Lefties (@LeftieStats) October 24, 2025

This is what ex-Labour mayor Jamie Driscoll wrote for the Canary following Labour’s defeat:

Caerphilly is a constituency of South Wales Valleys. The spiritual home of the Labour movement. Labour’s superficially impressive haul of 411 Westminster MPs in July 2024 was an anti-Tory vote. They’ve squandered their opportunity.

Labour have been insincere, insidious, and incompetent. Having won the leadership by lying to Labour members (remember his Ten Pledges?), team Starmer doubled down and told different lies to different sections of the electorate. It’s not just that they are floundering in the polls. The party is structurally ashamed of itself. This time last year my social media feeds still had a handful of tribal Labour loyalists saying “give them time”.

Advertisement

No more.

Disasterclass

Keir Starmer looks set to go down in history as the politician who ended Labour’s viability in Wales. The question is whether his next record will be ending the party’s viability everywhere else.

Featured image via Getty

By Willem Moore

Source link

Trump got in trouble recently for depicting himself as Jesus Christ. Following a considerable backlash from his Christian supporters, Trump had to delete the image and said it was supposed to be him as a doctor – a claim which made zero sense.

Now, Trump is once again flirting with controversy by posting the following:

Trump posts a picture of Jesus hugging him days after his AI-deity image drew widespread anger https://t.co/othuzjEfKa pic.twitter.com/fuqsw2NX5b

— The Independent (@Independent) April 15, 2026

Advertisement

Trump is 6ft 3in, by the way, so that Jesus must be 6ft 7in at least.

Oh, and although it looks like Jesus is giving Trump a ‘hand’, that’s actually just how the picture was cropped.

And no, we can’t explain the expression on Trump’s face.

Trump has a go at “Radical Left Lunatics”

This was how Trump captioned the post:

Trump shares another image of himself and Jesus. pic.twitter.com/sDLQbAsVyc

— Headquarters (@HQNewsNow) April 15, 2026

Trump is suggesting it’s the “Radical Left Lunatics” who have taken offence. As we reported, however, it was Trump’s Christian base who really took offence to his obviously blasphemous post. And as Forbes added:

The post sparked instant backlash, largely from conservative Christian factions of Trump’s base, including prominent conservative Christian journalist Megan Basham who called it “OUTRAGEOUS blasphemy” and political commentator Cam Higby who said he spends “8 hours a day” defending Trump but “will not defend blasphemy.”

Trump would later claim he was supposed to be a “doctor” in his now-deleted post:

President Trump claims the viral image that was posted on Truth was not a depiction of him as Jesus Christ but was him being depicted as a doctor.

Reporter: Did you post that picture of yourself depicted as Jesus Christ?

Advertisement

Trump: I did post it, and I thought it was me as a doctor… pic.twitter.com/4pfSRFPdrp

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) April 13, 2026

This made zero sense, because doctors don’t dress as Jesus Christ:

Come on people. We all know that Trump was dressed as a doctor. pic.twitter.com/HvFNKhMasS

— Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) April 13, 2026

Trump rolls out new scrubs US doctors will be required to wear. pic.twitter.com/3CUhjxlyaV

— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) April 14, 2026

Since then, the following theory has emerged:

oh my god. was trump told to tell the press that the image was "doctored," but misunderstood and told everyone that he was depicted as a "doctor"? https://t.co/IHr3y5myha

— manny (@mannyfidel) April 14, 2026

The religious roundup

In other news, war secretary (and supposed Christian) Pete Hegseth quoted Pulp Fiction because he’s never read an actual Bible:

Pete Hegseth quoted a fake Bible verse from Pulp Fiction during a Pentagon sermon.pic.twitter.com/1o3CJiJYRF

— Clash Report (@clashreport) April 16, 2026

Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, meanwhile, fell out with Trump as a result of him attacking the Pope:

Meloni has just disavowed Trump

"Trump's statement is unacceptable"

“I wouldn’t feel comfortable in a society in which religious leaders do what political leaders say.”

"I stand with Pope Leo.” pic.twitter.com/B4i2tiRUUh

— 𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐔𝐍𝐄𝐒 (@Antunes1) April 14, 2026

Advertisement

Trump fired back with the classic ‘I know you are but what am I‘ – a classic line from Pete Hegseth’s Bible:

"It's her who's unacceptable" — Trump in a new interview today attacked Italian Prime Minster Giorgia Meloni for criticizing his attacks on the Pope pic.twitter.com/1QDw7Vqkmw

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 14, 2026

As the Guardian reported, Trump has since said:

“If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican,” Trump claimed, adding: “Leo should get his act together as Pope, use Common Sense, stop catering to the Radical Left, and focus on being a Great Pope, not a Politician. It’s hurting him very badly and, more importantly, it’s hurting the Catholic Church!”

It’s unclear why Trump thinks Leo owes his papacy to Trump; possibly because both men are American?

Does Trump think the Catholics were so impressed with Trump that they had to promote a Yank of their own?

Hmm – that does sound like the sort of thing he’d think, actually.

This is the Pope’s latest message anyway:

Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic, and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth. #ApostolicJourney #Cameroon https://t.co/bKteFZ3iWE

— Pope Leo XIV (@Pontifex) April 16, 2026

End of days

The Guardian also noted:

In his subsequent comments to reporters, Trump remained highly critical, saying: “I don’t think he’s doing a very good job. He likes crime I guess,” adding: “He’s a very liberal person.”

The reference to ‘liking crime’ shows how much Trump has degenerated.

Going tough on crime and punishment has always been a Republican talking point, but you can’t just level the argument against anyone. Accusing the Pope of loving crime because he opposed America’s illegal war on Iran makes zero sense to anyone besides Trump himself.

At this point, we’re just praying giant AI Jesus shows up to save us all.

Featured image via Truth Social

By Willem Moore

Source link

The Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) Access to Work (AtW) scheme has been referring people living with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) to organisations classifying the condition as a form of “acquired neurodivergence”.

Of course, ME is already a much-misunderstood syndrome, and it can be extremely difficult for people to get treatment. And, this shocking revelation comes as the DWP try to force disabled people into work, and strip back funding for AtW – making it even harder for disabled people to stay in work.

The implications for people living with ME could be catastrophic.

DWP Access to Work: ME as ‘acquired neurodivergence’?

A person living with ME has approached the Canary to whistleblow over their alarming experience engaging with AtW. Notably, DWP staff administering the scheme had directed them to organisations misrepresenting the condition as a form of neurodivergence.

Now, after investigating further, the Canary has discovered a number of AtW coaching providers specialising in support for neurodivergent employees are promoting their services for people living with ME.

The Canary has identified at least three peddling this:

• Creased Puddle
• Genius Within
• No Drama Llamas

Of course, ME is not a neurodivergent condition. The World Health Organization (WHO) has long recognised it as a neurological disease affecting the nervous system.

Despite this, these organisations have still been actively peddling the idea that ME is a type of “acquired neurodivergence”. This dangerously trivialises the lived reality of employees with ME. It’s also likely impacting the sorts of support the AtW scheme is prepared to offer them.

And this misrepresentation of the extensively debilitating condition is undoubtedly contributing to the punitive ‘back to work’ climate and vilifying culture rife at the DWP as well.

Out with the old psychologising, in with the new psychologising

The above organisations specialise in neurodivergence and seem to have started expanding their services to people with ME around 2020 and 2021. The reasons for this are likely twofold.

Firstly, this coincides with the rising cases of long Covid – many of which will meet the diagnostic criteria for ME. In a 2021 Returning to Work briefing, Creased Puddle’s CEO Caroline Turner said:

Our expertise lies in developing and supporting neurominorities, yet with COVID-19 we are seeing our services extending to other conditions such as Chronic Fatigue, Fybromyalgia and Depression.

Meanwhile, a webpage Genius Within created in September 2020 features a page on ‘Chronic neurological conditions’ where it classifies multiple sclerosis, “chronic fatigue syndrome”, and long Covid as a ‘neurotype’ called ‘acquired neurodivergence’.

The second reason for their emergence into employment support for people with ME could revolve around the 2021 updated National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines.

This finally dismissed the biopsychosocial lobby’s junk science around treatments psychologising ME. Of course, a core part of these psychosocial-wedded clinicians’ evidence base had been the disgraced PACE trial. The DWP had part-funded this – with an obvious agenda of trivialising the condition in order to force chronically ill patients into the low-waged capitalist workforce.

As the lobby’s grip on the condition’s consensus has gradually waned, it has taken new rebranding approaches to continue harmful psychologising treatments. While they can no longer outright label ME as psychological, ‘acquired neurodivergence’ could open up a new avenue to promote psychological interventions.

Acquired neurodivergence: not a new term

That said, the idea that ME is a form of acquired neurodivergence does not appear to be a new phenomenon. A 2017 report that the British Psychological Society (BPS) launched at the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Psychology categorised ME amid a group of neurological conditions it described as “acquired neurodiversity”*.

The report’s core thrust was largely about adaptations and interventions employers could put into place to support neurodivergent employees.

But the interventions involved some problematic suggestions for employees with ME, including:

• Formal coaching for “executive functions, communication skills, stress management and understanding own abilities.”
• Vocational rehabilitation and Individual Placement and Support (IPS).

In other words, all approaches that psychologise support – and with histories of harm to boot.

Perhaps most significant however is the fact that Genius Within’s founder and CEO Dr Nancy Doyle co-authored the report. And now, her organisation is among the handful pushing this ‘acquired neurodivergence’ paradigm. The support it offers to employees with ME is coaching for:

• Stress
• Time management
• Organisation
• Memory
• Listening and taking notes
• Verbal communication

So it’s evident Doyle’s approach has little changed since the 2017 BPS report. Because clearly employers simply need to coach the chronic multi-systems dysfunctions out of their employees with ME.

DWP: no training for Access to Work staff on ME

Through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request we sought to find out what training the DWP provides to its staff administering the AtW scheme.

The DWP has training guides and condition-specific insight reports for assessors overseeing Personal Independence Payment (PIP). It also separately holds these for Universal Credit’s health element. We have however highlighted some glaring issues with these.

But when it comes to AtW, no such training or guidance for staff appears to exist. The DWP responded to the FOI that:

the information you requested is not held by this Department.

This is concerning enough in itself. However, a recent revelation during a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) inquiry session on AtW highlighted that DWP staff making decisions around the scheme are not medically trained. Responding to a question on this, DWP director general on services and fraud noted only that there are doctors in the department that staff can go to for “advice”. Of course, the implication is that there’s no expectation on AtW staff to do that.

In essence, DWP AtW employees with no training, guidance, or knowledge around the condition are deciding what support people with ME need. And this will undoubtedly be the case across the board for all disabilities and health conditions.

DWP directing people to these organisations deliberately?

The Canary its findings with the ME Association. On reading them, honorary medical adviser to the ME Association Dr Charles Shepherd told the Canary:

The ME Association is aware of a number of people who have some form of neurodivergence as well as having ME/CFS. However, neurodivergent conditions are increasingly being diagnosed – so there are bound to be some people who have both conditions, and there is no research evidence to indicate that the two conditions are linked.

It is not therefore correct to classify ME/CFS as an acquired neurodivergent condition. Incorrect classification of ME/CFS as a neurodivergent disorder could also lead to inappropriate forms of symptom or support management being advised.

Overall, ‘acquired neurodivergence’ seems to be the new ‘psychosomatic’ for ME patients.

Where previously, the DWP benefitted from the trivialisation of ME as a mental health condition, now it can weaponise this idea that its neurological symptoms constitute neurodivergence developed from chronic illness.

The consequences of this are obvious. Because in turn, it means the government’s attack on neurodivergent people not in work will target people with ME too.

Set against its narrative on the so-called post-pandemic rise in neurodivergent people claiming health benefits and it’s clear where this leads. If the foremost scheme improving workplace accessibility for disabled employees is directing people with ME to organisations that treat their condition in neurodivergent terms, it also doesn’t have to provide the more expensive support workers, job aides, and workplace accommodations that people with ME actually need to re-enter and/or stay in employment.

That all likely suits a DWP that’s sneaking through devastating cuts to AtW behind closed doors. But overall, it’s risking coercing people with ME into work without the support they need to protect their wellbeing.

So once again, the department is failing people with ME. However, that will come as little surprise to a patient community it has long gaslighted and pushed to the margins.

Featured image via the Canary

By Hannah Sharland

Source link

A British general has tried to blame the UK military’s widespread sexual violence and deep-rooted misogyny on the so-called Manosphere. General Roly Walker said these issues were being brought into the army from outside.

SAS-trained Walker is the current head of the British Army. He was addressing a defence committee meeting on sexual violence in the ranks. Asked why sexual harassment was as widespread an issue in the army as it was five years ago, he responded:

My personal view is this gets harder before it gets easier, because of the trends in wider society.

The level of misogyny, the level of rancorous behaviour and belief systems, and the tension in wider society is something we have to accept as the environment from which we attract.

He even said he had been forced to deal with such issues in his domestic life:

I’ve got children in their early 20s. I’m well aware of what is going on with things like the manosphere and the sense of deepening rifts within young people, all of which is playing and accelerating through social media.

A lot of that generation are coming through into the Armed Forces.

Self-evidently, this was an attempt to externalise the military’s longtime issues with gender, sexual violence and abuse. But it isn’t going to cut it.

The Manosphere

The MPs and panelists at the committee session talked about the impacts of the Atherton report on bullying, harassment and discrimination (BHD) and sexual violence, which was published half a decade ago. That report found:

64 percent of female veterans and 58 percent of currently-serving women reported experiencing BHD during their careers.

And heard:

truly shocking evidence of the bullying, sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape experienced by servicewomen.

It also warned about issues with:

the military’s handling of sexual assault and harassment, which sometimes exacerbates trauma for victims.

Report author and former MP Sarah Atherton was at the session. She did not agree with Walker:

It’s obviously something that he felt quite awkward to say. It felt quite awkward to listen to. It’s obviously what the MOD are using as an excuse for this behaviour, and what he said actually normalised the problem.

Well done, general… You’ve pissed off the woman who wrote the proverbial book on this issue.

Externalising the problem

The UN defines the Manosphere as:

online communities that have increasingly promoted narrow and aggressive definitions of what it means to be a man – and the false narrative that feminism and gender equality have come at the cost of men’s rights.

Adding that:

These communities promote the idea that emotional control, material wealth, physical appearance and dominance, especially over women, are markers of male worth.

Think Joe Rogan, Andrew Tate and sundry other tawdry bullshit-peddling man-babies… But let’s cut to the chase: the British military’s issue with sexual violence predates our era of dodgy influencers.

Take the example of the inquiry into recruit deaths at Deepcut Barracks in the late ’90s and early 2000s. The inquiry alleged a widespread culture of “bullying, sexual assaults and rape”. The last death was in 2002, when Andrew Tate was an unknown 16 year old. How, then, could this possibly be related to the ghoulish spectacle of modern online misogyny?

What about the case of Danish tour guide Louise Jensen, raped and murdered by three soldiers in Cyprus in 1994? Or the sexual torture of Kenyan women suspected of ‘collaboration’ with the anti-colonial Mau Mau movement by the British colonial forces in the 1950s?

The list goes on…

Built-in violence

The truth is that many forms of violence are built into the military institution and the practice of warfare – and always has been. This includes sexual violence, which has been a feature of wars since time immemorial. The Bible even tries to give rape in war some legitimacy. And Israel’s use of systematic sexual violence as a tactic of occupation and genocide is just one of many modern examples.

This general’s comments betray a deep ignorance of the issue at hand. And it is worrying that such a powerful figure has the lives, health and safety of others in his hands. The truth is we need to examine, reform and perhaps even abolish – in part or in whole – the institutions of war if this issue is ever going to be seriously addressed.

By Joe Glenton

Source link

2008: ‘Country Club: Chicken Wire’ | Private Collection. © Hurvin Anderson. Image courtesy the artist and Thomas Dane Gallery. Photo: Richard Ivey.

3 min read2 min

The intensity of the work of the contemporary British artist Hurvin Anderson must be experienced first-hand to be fully appreciated

Advertisement

From the start of this retrospective of 40 years’ work, it is clear that Hurvin Anderson’s main interest lies in his own upbringing and heritage, and how the different aspects of that heritage might fit together. What is fascinating is that they don’t: there is no resolution, rather different parts of that heritage sit awkwardly beside each other, or are layered on top of each other, in a kind of dualistic conflict.

Anderson, born in Handsworth, Birmingham, to Jamaican immigrants, grew up in what was both an English and multi-cultural environment. The earliest paintings – influenced by family photos – are largely black and white figurative studies, although he is already thinking about the Caribbean his parents left behind. An early breakthrough work is Ball Watching (1997), itself based on a photo he took of boyhood friends with their backs to us looking out at a lost football floating on the lake in Handsworth Park. But he has already turned the lake into a seemingly warm sea and put ships on the horizon, while the football itself has disappeared.

In another work looking back at this Birmingham childhood Grove Lane (2000), the swimming bath cubicle doors painted in artificial colours don’t erase the grimy grey of the concrete surroundings – just as lovingly rendered by the artist.

Advertisement

On a first visit to Jamaica, his reaction was one not of ‘homecoming’ but of dislocation. As Anderson says: “My struggle with Jamaica: I don’t know it and I know it. I have this romantic vision of it and a lot of my painting is fighting that romance.”

It is exciting to see the artist’s development

Interestingly, then, Anderson describes his painting process (which soaks up many influences from the LP covers of Jamaican artist Ras Daniel Heartman, to John Constable and Anderson’s mentor the British artist Peter Doig) as a search for what his autobiographical work “should be”. That “should” is instructive. For instance, Maracas III (2004), a painting of the popular beach spot in Trinidad (where Anderson had a residency) feels simultaneously like a fragmented memory, and – with its sketchy figures – an idealised projection into the future, like an architectural plan. Counterintuitively, too, our attention is, as with other of the Caribbean pictures, drawn away from the tourists’ beach to the lush island interior.

Advertisement

That interior is there too in the wonderful Limestone Wall (2020), where an abandoned Jamaican hotel (part of the colonial legacy) is gradually being swallowed up by the forest.

It is exciting to see the artist’s development, for instance from the more obvious geometric obstruction of what is felt to be unreachable (or out of bounds) as in Country Club, Chicken Wire (2008) to the subtle use of squaring-up lines which weave in and out of the painting, as in the brilliant Siding (2013) seen in the first room of the exhibition.

The accompanying catalogue has interesting essays, though not quite enough information about the individual works themselves. The illustrations, perhaps inevitably, do not do justice to the intensity of work that has to be experienced first-hand to be fully appreciated.

Earl of Clancarty is a Crossbench peer

Hurvin Anderson

Curated by: Dominique Heyse-Moore and Jasmine Kaur Chohan

Venue: Tate Britain until 23 August

Advertisement

Source link

The post ‘The trans mafia won’t back down’ appeared first on spiked.

Source link

Housing minister Matthew Pennycook has told parliament that the Starmer government does not support rent controls. The reason was that doing so would “make life more difficult for renters”.

Since then, Pennycook has received the praise of – you guessed it – not renters:

Labour's housing minister's opposition to rent controls welcomed by the country's largest private landlord.

Who's side are Labour on? Renters or landlords. The answer is here. pic.twitter.com/olVzEIVTki

Advertisement

— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) April 15, 2026

Land of the landlords

Pennycook told parliament:

The government does not support the introduction of rent controls, which we believe could make life more difficult for renters.

There is sufficient international evidence from countries such as Sweden and Germany, and from individual cities such as San Francisco, as well as the recent Scottish experience, to attest to the potential detrimental impacts of rent controls on tenants.

Advertisement

There are reasons why rent controls can make things worse. Mostly the issue is they make it harder for landlords to make obscene profits from renters, which forces them to throw their toys out of the pram.

In a nutshell, this is why something as essential as shelter shouldn’t be in the hands of money grubbers.

Pennycook also said:

I have looked at a wealth of evidence, particularly international evidence, of what the impact of first and second-generation rent controls are, as well as more subtle forms of rent control, which can have differential impacts on different groups.

Such controls typically benefit settled and better-off tenants more than those looking for a home or needing to move.

Advertisement

As Polanski noted, Pennycook’s inaction plan has gone down well with landlords:

Pennycook’s opposition to rent controls was welcomed by Kurt Mueller, director of corporate affairs and executive committee member at Grainger, Britain’s largest listed private landlord.

Mueller, highlighting the housing minister’s comments on the LinkedIn social media platform, said: “It’s good to see continued support from the UK Government for common sense with their steadfast commitment against rent controls and the damaging impact they would have for renters and the market generally.”

Not everyone agrees, though.

Living Rent

Living Rent have sought to dispel myths on this topic. They go into further detail on their site, but in a nutshell:

1) Isn’t the only problem supply?

Not really. Firstly, supply isn’t really as big of an issue as it’s made out to be – for instance, there is a higher proportion of empty bedrooms in the UK than at any time since the Great Plague (!). The ratio of rooms to people has never been higher in modern history. We’re not against new builds, especially not new social housing, but the supply question is kind of a red herring.

…

2) All landlords would leave the sector and tenants would have nowhere to live.

Landlords threaten to leave the sector if regulation is increased, but a quick glance across Europe is enough to dismiss this: the most heavily regulated private rented sectors are consistently the biggest. Germany, with the biggest PRS in Europe, is easily one of the most heavily regulated.

…

Advertisement

Lest we forget, we don’t actually need landlords to have houses.

These unnecessary middlemen offer nothing and take everything.

People claim that capitalism eliminates inefficiencies, but these people are waste personified.

Failures

Living Rent also noted:

3) Didn’t they fail when we had them last time?

Landlords insist that the various rent controls which existed in the UK between 1915 and 1988 were disastrous for tenants. They point out that, over those 70 years, we went from almost nine in ten people renting privately to fewer than one in ten. They claim this is proof that rent controls devastate the private rented sector (PRS).

Oh no, not the private rented sector – won’t somebody think of the landlords?

Living rent continued:

This argument, in fact, was a favourite of David Cameron, who told the House of Commons in 2013: “I do not support the idea of mass rent controls because I think we would see a massive decline in the private rented sector, which is what happened the last time we had such rent controls.”

But that change, by absolutely any measure, was an enormous success of public policy. The reduction in the private rented sector can be explained in three obvious – and positive – ways:

Advertisement

• Millions of council homes were built to give people a secure, safe, affordable place to stay outside the PRS.
• Millions of people were able to buy their own homes through real-terms increases in wages and the expansion of mortgage availability.
• Millions of the properties that landlords were renting out were demolished in slum clearances because they were, well, slums.

Without rent controls, it seems, slum-like conditions have once more returned. As writer Bob Lynn notes:

In 21st century Britain, a shocking reality lurks behind closed doors. Families are living in conditions that harken back to the squalor of Victorian slums — damp walls, mould-infested rooms, and overcrowded spaces unfit for human habitation. …

The word ‘slum’ conjures images of Dickensian London, with its overcrowded tenements and disease-ridden streets. Yet, for many low-income families today, this grim picture is not far from their daily reality. In 2022, around 3.8 million people in the UK experienced destitution, unable to afford basic necessities like food, warmth, and shelter. This figure has more than doubled since 2017, pointing to a rapidly worsening crisis.

But yes, the real crime would be if rent didn’t leap up by obscene amounts every year.

Do something

Living Rent finished:

4) All economists agree that rent controls are bad

You’ll often hear comments bandied around claiming that all economists agree rent controls are unambiguously bad. There is a grain of truth to this – a poll from 1992 showed a surprising degree of consensus that rent controls would have negative effects.

But here’s the hitch. Nobody is proposing the type of rent controls that this supposed unanimous opposition is directed at. During the first world war, what are now called ‘first generation rent controls’ were brought in across most countries involved in the conflict – these were blunt caps or freezes on rent, and are rightly criticised for having negative side effects. But now we have 70 years of evidence from across the world about how to implement rent controls without unintended consequences.

Now, as Housing Today have reported:

The Green Party said its members elected in May will “use their voice to pressure the Labour government to give local authorities the power to introduce rent controls to curb overheating rents in their area.” The party has also pledged to “totally” abolish leasehold and introduce rent controls nationally if it gets into government.

Leasehold (and the truth) is another sensitive area for Pennycook, as we reported:

Oh… right. https://t.co/orvrBLe28D pic.twitter.com/lYnHBtjJmV

— cladtrap (@cladtrap) March 27, 2026

Systems

Sometimes well-meaning ideas can have unintended consequences. The solution isn’t to give up on fixing things; the solution, like Polanski argued, is to adapt until you get the right results.

Labour’s solution to most issues is to bury their heads in the sand. The problem is that while they ignore the world and its problems, the world is moving on without them.

Featured image via Parliament

By Willem Moore

Source link