Politics
Unite Union workers strike again over “toxic bullying culture”
Just over a year after Unite union staff first went on strike alleging a “toxic bullying culture” in the department run by general secretary Sharon Graham‘s husband Jack Clarke, Graham faces a new strike by union officers disgusted by the Unite management’s anti-union manoeuvres.
Unite officers, and the Community union they want to represent them at work, say they have faced underhanded “Murdoch anti-union tactics” from Unite as Graham and her coterie try — the irony! — to prevent them organising. In a statement about the strike ballot, the “Reunite the Union” group writes:
A little over a year since the first strike by Unite staff over a “toxic bullying culture,” Sharon Graham now faces a second industrial action ballot by Unite employees. As the union’s officers ballot for action over union recognition, it’s time to Reunite to end the toxicity and divisions which are forcing our own union’s employees into dispute.
In the wake of the strike action by the staff in November 2024, and the indicative ballot for wider staff action that followed, our union’s officers voted to join Community and establish their own branch.
Even in the complicated world of trade unionism within trade unions, where the employees of one trade union are represented by another, the principle is very clear. An independent union is a prerequisite for genuine collective bargaining and representation. The vote of the officers was followed by protracted recognition talks between Sharon Graham’s management team and the officers’ reps, now supported by Community.
Despite the new Community branch having the overwhelming support of the officers, Sharon Graham’s management team opted to also recognise an unofficial “Unite Officers Group” (UOG). While the UOG is a very small rump of officers, this is important because it is not an independent union. It is in effect a ‘staff association.’ This UOG group was then invited to participate in pay negotiations on an equal footing to Community (for Officers) and GMB (for staff).
Unscrupulous employers use bogus staff associations to undermine genuine collective bargaining by legitimate unions. The motivation of management to extend recognition to the UOG can be interpreted in different ways, but during the staff strike the GMB union was very clear that our union’s staff faced “underhand tactics” from Sharon Graham’s management team.
“We have consistently seen underhand tactics used to undermine these workers’ legitimate concerns and their right to pursue industrial action. Today they were met by a counter-protest, in yet another attempt to intimidate them. This is a further example of the culture they are challenging.”
Fast forward and the officers represented by Community have now formally served notice of their ballot for industrial action. An update from the National Committee of the Unite Officers Bargaining Unit gave management the opportunity to prevent this by withdrawing recognition of the UOG:
“Unite were advised that in the absence of our management not agreeing to withdraw recognition of the UOG, the ballot for industrial action would now commence.
Community are now preparing the industrial action notice which is being sent out next week.”
Management refused, so notice was served and ballot papers will start to be issued to officers on 12 March.
Reunite is in complete solidarity with the officers represented by Community, just as we fully supported the staff strike. Both disputes reflect the “toxic bullying culture” which is destroying our union from within. It must stop.
This is not the Graham regime’s only misadventure with employee union branches. A cast of senior management figures, including from Sharon Graham’s office, turned up to the LE128 Unite branch of Unite (and other union) staff and attempted to solicit a donation of thousands of pounds for management’s preferred candidates in the Executive Council election. This was not successful.
As Reunite has documented in recent weeks, our staff, our organisers and now our officers experience this “toxic bullying culture” in different ways, but the root problem is the same.
It’s time to end the toxicity and divisions.
It’s time to get our union focused on winning for members.
It’s time to Reunite.
Staff working under Graham’s husband Clarke went on strike over their complaints of bullying and misogyny — at least three and probably four of five female members of staff in Clarke’s ‘BDSU’ unit quit. But the workers accused the union’s management, run by Graham, of abuse, lawfare and union-busting tactics.
The union’s lawyers admitted that Unite had destroyed evidence, gathered by mostly-women workers in an earlier major complaint against Clarke — who was on a final warning from the union before being promoted, outside usual union procedures, to run the newly-created BDSU after Graham took over.
And workers on strike in the second dispute said that staff working for Graham even staged a counter-demo against their picket.
As Skwawkbox wrote at the time:
Graham’s ‘union-busting’ record against Unite staff and the union’s destruction of evidence in complaints against her husband have outraged staff and labour movement activists…
…Graham’s statement about bad employers raises the question whether she intends to call out and suspend herself, given her admitted and alleged record as boss of the Unite union. During her tenure – which goes to a member ballot again next year and for which she already appears to be electioneering – she has been constantly surrounded by allegations of abuse and anti-union behaviour and one explosive admission.
Bargaining and Dispute Support Unit (BDSU) staff have been in dispute with the union and her husband Jack Clarke over alleged bullying and abuse by Clarke and his allies – far from the first such allegations against Clarke – and have accused Graham and her management team of employing intimidation, suspension and anti-union tactics against the staff in the dispute, outraging Unite’s National Industrial Sector Committee (NISC) for the print and graphics centre and the leaders of two unions representing Unite staff and officers.
So bad has this alleged conduct been that more than 90% of Unite staff working at the union’s Holborn HQ voted for strike action. Three – some say four – of the five women who worked in Clarke’s department since Graham formed it and put him in charge of it have left it, with union sources saying that they also alleged bullying and abuse. The Unite union staff branch unanimously condemned Unite’s abuse of its staff and the influential Officers National Committee (ONC) has accused Graham of using Murdoch-esque anti-union tactics against workers and against Unite officers trying to unionise and take collective action.
Graham’s rule of Unite has also been marked by a string of other serious allegations, which neither she nor the union has ever denied – of abuse, cover-up and failure to protect women. And in an astonishing admission exclusively obtained and revealed by Skwawkbox, lawyers acting for Graham admitted that evidence, including recordings – gathered by women accusing her husband Jack Clarke of misogyny, bullying and abuse – had been destroyed.
Skwawkbox had earlier revealed that Graham allegedly attempted to have the evidence destroyed in the complaints against her husband, who now runs the BDSU that she created when she became general secretary, office despite a final warning from the union for his behaviour.
Graham has also faced allegations that her chief of staff threatened a (now-retired) senior officer with the loss of a pension bonus if he did not soften his support for Palestinians against Israel’s genocide and that her allies tricked Abellio truck drivers into accepting a deficient pay deal after they originally voted to reject it.
In addition, the union’s strike fund has collapsed by more than 90% under her tenure, she has been exposed behind the union’s decision to ban showings in Unite’s buildings of a film exposing racism, smears, rigging and abuse by the Labour right and has been accused of turning Unite into right-wing Labour leader Keir Starmer’s ‘poodle’ and attacking anti-genocide campaigners, while members’ elected representatives have not been allowed to see the union’s accounts for well over two years.
The Community Union has formally served notice on Unite, on behalf of officers working in there, of an industrial action ballot for a “Dispute relating to trade union recognition and all matters arising out of that dispute”.
Featured image via the Canary
A panicked Donald Trump has called for an end to the Republican Party’s Texas primary after a left-wing Christian pastor who opposes Israel won a stunning victory in the Democratic primary.
Not in your name
James Talarico, is the honourable pastor and state senator, who beat Israel lobby-backed Jasmine Crockett in the 4 March primary. He believes strongly that Jesus would be tipping over tables in protest against racist Christian nationalism.
The results sent Trump into a tailspin, leading him to demand that Republican candidates drop out of the primary battle so he could nominate his preferred pick to fight the ‘radical left’ opponent. The move has infuriated members of the Republican camp.
Tanking Trump
The demand, as we can surmise, shows that Trump knows how badly he’s tanking in the polls. The Democrats haven’t won in Texas since 1988, but he fears they might now. However, Trump was out of luck. The candidates rejected his demand, and two contenders are still fighting tooth and nail for the top spot.
Featured image via the Canary
Politics
Politics Home Article | UK “Stands Ready” To Support Emergency International Energy Reserves
Chancellor Rachel Reeves joined a virtual meeting with G7 finance ministers to discuss the situation in the Middle East (Alamy)
3 min read
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has confirmed the UK is ready to back a coordinated release of International Energy Agency oil reserves to help stabilise fuel prices, as the Middle East conflict continues.
Reeves gave a statement to the House of Commons after meeting with G7 finance ministers on Monday afternoon, as part of wider efforts to coordinate an international economic response to the Iran conflict’s impact on global energy security and markets.
The Chancellor said that in the meeting, she emphasised the need for “immediate de-escalation” of the conflict and a return to the diplomatic process.
She sought to reassure the public as the UK braces for further energy price shocks and market volatility. Oil prices have spiked in the Middle East, and oil shipping routes have been disrupted as the conflict between Iran, the US and Israel continues.
“I know that families and businesses will be concerned about the impact of this conflict on them,” Reeves said, before confirming that the UK is ready to support a coordinated release of collective International Energy Agency oil reserves.
Reeves said she has explicitly asked the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to be vigilant across energy prices, including essentials like road fuel and heating oil, stressing she will “not tolerate any company exploiting the current crisis to make excess benefits at consumers’ expense”.
The move is intended to reassure motorists and households that the government is monitoring supply‑chain pricing and looking to prevent opportunistic price gouging at a time of heightened energy insecurity.
The Chancellor also announced that the Treasury has approved Ministry of Defence (MoD) access to the Treasury’s special reserve to fund additional military capabilities in the Middle East.
She said this would ensure that “no net additional costs of these operations will be funded by the MoD, but instead will be funded by the Treasury”.
Reeves said the UK will also play its part as the global hub of maritime insurance, and is due to meet with the chair of Lloyds of London later on Monday to discuss how to support the continued passage of maritime trade.
Highlighting the importance of boosting domestic energy resilience, Reeves confirmed that the government will publish its response “in the coming days” to the Fingleton review of nuclear regulation, a key step she said will help “build nuclear power more quickly”.
Reeves said inflation was likely to rise in the coming months, but financial markets were continuing to function normally. In response to her statement, Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride said: “These are very serious and concerning times, and the developments in the Middle East are already having profound consequences for our economy.
“Oil prices have surged above $100 a barrel for the first time since the 2022 energy crisis. That alone is enough to have huge knock-on effects for households and businesses.”
He accused the government of making the economy “weaker” and pointed out that inflation remains elevated.
“That is far from ideal, given the threat of a significant further spike in energy prices,” he continued.
“And of course, extraordinarily, the Chancellor has just now reconfirmed that the government will press ahead with a rise in fuel duty later this year, and borrowing is running higher than was forecast when the government took office.”
The number of people in hardship who are having to pay for private dentists has almost doubled in two years, according to new research by Healthwatch England.
A survey commissioned by the independent health watchdog found 27% of people who described themselves as ‘struggling financially’ had used a private dentist in 2025 compared to 14% in 2023.
A lack of dentists offering NHS appointments, particularly in more deprived areas, and there being no guaranteed right to care from an NHS dentist are fueling the rise in people going private.
Rebecca Curtayne, acting head of policy, public affairs and research at Healthwatch England, said:
Our findings are a warning that for some people, there’s only one tier dental care — private. And it’s the most vulnerable people in our society who bear the brunt of the ongoing shortage of NHS dental appointments.
The government won’t end health inequalities until it fixes NHS dentistry. Too many people on low incomes are being forced into private care they struggle to afford, or are going without treatment altogether. The system is failing those who need it most.
Use of private dentists up since 2023
People living in deprived areas who can’t find an NHS dentist, and feel they have no choice but to pay for private dental care, are potentially penalised twice, the report highlights.
They must pay significantly more for the same treatment, up to £75 for a routine examination that costs £27.40 via the NHS, and patients who are exempt from NHS dental charges, such as pregnant people, will lose the benefit of the exemption.
The data is from Healthwatch’s upcoming report, The public’s perspective: The state of health and social care, and based on a poll of nearly 2,600 adults in England last year.
It shows the number of adults who have sought private dentistry increased by 10 percentage points to almost a third (32%).
Between 2023 and 2025, the share of people who consider themselves ‘financially comfortable’ who reported using private dentistry also rose from 30% to 36%.
Financially comfortable households are still more likely to use private care, but the gap between the two groups has narrowed sharply.
Curtayne continued:
It’s positive to see that public’s confidence in NHS dentistry has increased slightly. The government needs to build on this, by improving access to NHS dentistry especially in rural and more deprived areas, and setting out its plans for fundamental reform of the NHS dental contract.
These plans should aim to give everyone the right to a permanent NHS dentist, in the same way people get a local NHS GP care who is there for both new and urgent problems.
Healthwatch England is calling for the government to introduce a legal right for people to register with an NHS dentist for life, similarly to their GP, and to review NHS dental charges amongst other reforms to help improve access to dental care.
Featured image via Pixabay
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Sky News reported that Queen Camilla has met with courageous Gisèle Pelicot and was apparently left “speechless” after reading the memoir penned by the French rape survivor. Pelicot had been touring the UK to promote her book ‘Hymn to Life: Shame Has To Change Sides’ at the time and joined Camilla at Clarence House. Pelicot has received widespread support and respect for her courage in exposing the extensive, sinister abuse she endured at the hands of her husband and his sick pals.
Her case made shockwaves across the world as victims and survivors of sexual abuse drew strength from her bravery. Pelicot waived her anonymity at the time of trial so that the offences and those involved would become public knowledge. Like the title of her book, she intends to ensure that shame is felt by the abusers and not their victims.
Camilla and hypocrisy
However, the hypocrisy at play is difficult to ignore. Camilla has made little effort to centre the victims connected to the so-called Epstein files or to address the role powerful men played in perpetrating such traumatic abuse against young girls and women. Perhaps she will draw inspiration from the courage of Gisèle Pelicot and begin speaking truth to powerful men while prioritising the suffering of their victims.
After all, both cases involve networks of men who believed they had the right to do whatever they wanted to their victims. The case draws clear parallels with the thousands of pages connected to the Epstein network of elites, which included her brother-in-law, the disgraced former prince Andrew.
On the other hand, she will likely just continue prioritising the comfort of those powerful men whilst being careful to maintain public appearances.
NEW: After the years of work Queen Camilla has carried out for victims and survivors of domestic abuse, today she met the brave Madame Gisèle Pelicot.
Her husband is serving 20 years for drugging and raping her with other men.
Camilla has previously written to Gisèle to express… pic.twitter.com/HRpPRCAhx3— Chris Ship (@chrisshipitv) February 23, 2026
Parallels between Pelicot’s case and the Epstein Files
The optics here are, at best, disingenuous and, at worst, a sucker punch to victims and survivors of the sinister web of sexual abuse and rape linked to Jeffrey Epstein, Donald Trump and their associates. The extraordinary bravery of Gisèle Pelicot led to 50 men being convicted of rape or sexual offences, exposing a horrifying network in which her husband repeatedly drugged her unconscious and allowed other men to assault her.
The so-called ‘Epstein files’ similarly revealed a web of powerful men exploiting women and girls to satisfy their own fantasies. At the same time, the abuse appears to have served as a double-edged weapon: by creating compromising situations and images involving influential figures, those involved could wield power on a far more lucrative and political scale.
We have written extensively on the revelations borne from the release of the Epstein Files.
Speaking about the Royal Family’s failure to recognise victims of abuse in connection to Epstein and arrogant paedo-prince Andrew, the Canary wrote:
Undoubtedly, the Royal Family feel discomfort around this issue. But that discomfort pales in comparison to the serious trauma experienced by victims of sexual abuse. Shamefully, the monarchy deepens that trauma by showing palpable disinterest in the harm powerful men cause.
Another reminder that they will never be on our side.
Gisele Pelicot, who has been internationally hailed after testifying against her husband and dozens of other men who raped her, has been awarded France’s top civic honour https://t.co/mkE2QdN6YD pic.twitter.com/l44Esx1RFN
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) July 13, 2025
Stop pretending you care and ACTUALLY do something
Powerful white women have much to answer for in British society. If they prioritised solidarity with victims over solidarity with the powerful, we would make far greater progress in holding those men accountable for the harm they have inflicted.
Sexual fantasies should never take precedence over the victims who must live with that trauma for the rest of their lives. Gisèle Pelicot’s advocacy and determination cannot have been easy; women who have suffered such violations rarely find it easy to expose that depth of pain. Nevertheless, she has spoken out to raise awareness about the disturbing realities of abuse and to show how even those we trust most can commit some of the worst assaults.
Therefore, this should have been an opportunity for Camilla to raise the need for thorough investigations into powerful men in the UK, who sit in positions of trust and responsibility. Instead, she has continued to look away, just like the rest of the royal family, when the call is very much coming from inside the house.
Until the royals actually engage with the implications of the Epstein files for Andrew’s behaviour, it’s hard to take platitudes from them about violence against women remotely seriously.
Featured image via the Canary
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Lisa Nandy shared some trite words on the government’s Covid-19 Day of Reflection. And rightly, disabled people ripped her to fucking shreds.
Covid Day of Reflection: lockdown through rose-tinted specs
According to the government, on March 8:
the nation will reflect and come together to remember those that lost their lives and to honour the tireless work and acts of kindness shown by many during the pandemic.
Of course, what actually happened was a few bullshit words and brushing the fact that COVID-19 still exists under the carpet.
Case in point, Lisa Nandy tweeted:
Today marks the national Covid-19 Day of Reflection.
Every one of us was impacted. My thoughts are with people who experienced loss and still carry the effects of the pandemic.
We also honour the dedication of our NHS staff, key workers and volunteers who helped us through.
Every March now, disabled people experience untold anger at the way “the pandemic years” are portrayed through rose-tinted glasses by politicians, the media, and even a lot of the general public.
They reminisce about banging pots and pans for the NHS instead of the government actually giving healthcare workers extra funding.
They laugh over socially distanced street parties while families couldn’t even hug at funerals. And get misty-eyed over Zoom games nights, talking about being “trapped” indoors.
When disabled people, who were actually abandoned in their homes, are ignored and still to this day derided.
Even though we know just how many of our community died and how many more disabled people Covid-19 is still creating.
Lisa Nandy ripped to shreds
A lot of hatred was rightly heaped onto the Tories for their handling of 2020, but it’s the way Labour is treating disabled people now that should also be in the spotlight.
Which is why Lisa Nandy’s tweet hit a nerve:
Today marks the national Covid-19 Day of Reflection.
Every one of us was impacted. My thoughts are with people who experienced loss and still carry the effects of the pandemic.
We also honour the dedication of our NHS staff, key workers and volunteers who helped us through.
— Lisa Nandy MP (@lisanandy) March 8, 2026
She’s correct in saying every one of us was impacted, but some of us far more than others. Nandy’s vast, wide-ranging hypocrisy was swiftly pointed out in the quote tweets.
Nandy turned off comments. Judging by the amount of anti-vaxxers in the quotes, this almost makes sense. But it also sent a clear message to disabled people that Labour don’t want your outlook either.
Some pointed out that COVID has not gone away, and Labour are doing nothing to stop it
You can catch Covid TODAY and get long term health effects from that infection starting NOW and UK Labour have done nothing to address airborne infection control backsliding in hospitals or run public health campaigns. You’re a joke https://t.co/ofRtYuvw9G
— null space (@null_nullspace) March 9, 2026
People are STILL losing their lives to Covid & others becoming disabled every day, including children. We need prevention; ventilation, filtration in all public buildings. Until then, 😷 @UKLabour have failed us, at least @TheGreenParty have an against covid policy. https://t.co/tPtKO8Lzfw
— Lara – Covid is Airborne (@fillthewhole) March 8, 2026
What are you doing TODAY for people catching covid, dying from it, and having long covid from past or recent infections? Presenting the pandemic is over is not a strategy. https://t.co/03TMGMmFhy
— Biology – 🧬 🔬 (@BiologyAwesome) March 9, 2026
But others, angry at the Labour planned cuts, pointed out just how dangerous Nandy’s party are for disabled people since COVID-19 started
What are you doing TODAY for people catching covid, dying from it, and having long covid from past or recent infections? Presenting the pandemic is over is not a strategy. https://t.co/03TMGMmFhy
— Biology – 🧬 🔬 (@BiologyAwesome) March 9, 2026
Labour want to slash benefits of people struggling with long term COVID. This MP has played lip service to the COVID struggle and blocked replies. Why bother being on here if you can’t take criticism? https://t.co/ZhPo5FBH8O
— McBea (@Mcbeath_on_sea) March 9, 2026
This, from a former NHS key worker, is heartbreaking:
I was one of those key workers.
Since COVID left me Disabled, @UKLabour have made me feel like a burden and a scrounger, even though I lost my health working hard to look after others.
Now you plan to slash benefits for people like me, while letting C19 rip.
Reflect harder. https://t.co/Q9aJZrEltl
— Nico Reznick 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🇪🇺🌍 (@NicoReznick) March 8, 2026
This is who the Labour Party really is
For all their platitudes about ‘honouring’ key workers and protecting people, they don’t give a fuck about disabled people. If they did, the DWP wouldn’t be trying to make it harder to claim PIP and slashing Universal Credit for new claimants.
At the end of the day, if successive governments hadn’t spent years demonising disabled people, it wouldn’t have been so easy for people to accept so many disabled deaths by COVID-19.
And that is the uncomfortable truth Labour needs to live with. Enough of the bullshit, politicians caused all these deaths. Now they get to have them on their conscience.
Featured image via the Canary
The G7 will not dip into its stockpiles of oil and gas after a call between its constituent nations’ finance ministers, according to French Finance Minister Roland Lescure. They spoke – including Reeves – in the past hour to discuss the possibility… The International Energy Agency co-ordinates activity of the G7 Strategic Petroleum Reserve. During…
Donald Trump’s war in Iran is set to have a trickle-down effect on prices around the world – meaning we could all end up worse off as a result.
The US president caused international chaos after he decided to work with Israel to launch strikes against Iran more than a week ago.
In retaliation, Tehran released missiles and drones on the neighbouring Gulf countries which are home to various US military bases.
It also effectively closed the Straits of Hormuz – the narrow stretch of water between the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman – by attacking the ships which travel through it.
About 20 million barrels of oil moves through the strait each day. That’s around a fifth of the world’s supply.
With the oil industry under threat, the global energy market is on unsteady ground – meaning everyone’s pockets are about to be hit.
Here’s what you need to know.
Petrol Prices Set To Go Up
The disruption in the Middle East is already sending the cost of Brent crude oil up.
It exceeded $105 (£78) a barrel on Monday, which is its highest price point in almost two years.
Gas has not increased in price this quickly since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, a time when the west tried to rapidly wean itself off Moscow’s cheap oil exports.
Higher wholesale energy prices result in higher prices at the petrol pumps.
The average cost of a litre of unleaded petrol was at 137.51p on Monday, while diesel cost 150.97p, according to the automotive services RAC – but both prices are expected to rise.
However, motorists have been urged not to panic-buy as this could be short-lived.
RAC’s head of policy Simon Williams told The Times: “We really shouldn’t see a shock jump in prices because wholesale fuel costs have only been rising gradually.
“Even though the price of Brent crude has risen, the impact of this shouldn’t be felt for more than a week.”
Still, he predicted that unleaded would reach an average of 140p in the next week or so while diesel may go up to 160p.
Meanwhile, the Petrol Retailers Association has already written to chancellor Rachel Reeves requesting she drops plans to hike fuel duty later this year.
Trump – who is a multi-billionaire – has tried to downplay the impact of rising oil prices.
He wrote on TruthSocial: “Short term oil prices, which will drop rapidly when the destruction of the Iran nuclear threat is over, is a very small price to pay for USA, and World, Safety and Peace.”
Energy Bills Expected To Rise
Changes in the oil market will hit energy bills too, as so many businesses and households are reliant on fossil fuels.
Wholesale gas prices in the UK have already increased by as much as 50% after Qatar stopped producing liquified natural gas as a result of the conflict.
The UK is more reliant on gas than many of its European allies though it has been moving towards renewable energy since the Ukraine invasion.
It produces less than half of the gas it needs and imports the rest, meaning UK bills will still be impacted.
The good news is these higher wholesale costs will not trickle down to household budgets until July.
Energy regulator Ofgem controls how much companies can charge customers who are on standard variable tariffs for each unit of gas and electricity with a new amount every three months.
The cap has already been confirmed for April to June – £1,641 per year, for homes which use both oil and gas.
However, the investment firm Stifel has warned that European wholesale gas prices could triple if the Strait of Hormuz closes for more than six weeks.
That would take the cap to £2,500 a year.
Interest Rates Expected To Go Up
Approximately 1.2 million borrowers will have their fixed mortgage deals end between now and September, meaning they will be looking to take out a new agreement with the bank.
Mortgage rates were declining and the Bank of England was expected to cut its base rate of interest from 3.75%.
But, the conflict in the Middle East means rates are now likely to go up.
Since Trump first initiated attacks on Iran, swap rates – the rate of interest lenders pay to institutions in return for fixed funding – went up by 0.2 percentage points.
That’s a cost which is likely to be passed onto homeowners.
For savers, a hike in interest rates is normally a positive as it means they get more returns on their savings.
The stock market has stumbled in recent days but investing usually helps to defy the impact of high inflation rates.
Yet, the FTSE 100 – the Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index – fell nearly 200 points at one point on Monday, though it has already slightly improved.
Overall Economic Impact
Prominent economist Paul Johnson told Times Radio that the Iran war will likely take “at least half a point off growth” within the economy this year, if the conflict continues.
He said: “That doesn’t sound like much, but that is quite a lot.
“That’s going to create problems for the public finances, and it’s going to make us all worse off.”
He added: “If energy prices are up, the UK and other countries dependent on energy will just be worse off, at least for the period that they’re higher.”
Johnson said the damage could be quite reduced if the war concludes quickly – but if it doesn’t, we could be in for “another couple of slightly miserable years.”
Prime minister Keir Starmer also warned on Monday “that the longer this goes on, the more likely the potential for an impact on our economy, impact into the lives and households of everybody and every business”.
Even before the Iran war, the UK economy was already looking rather sluggish at the end of last year, with GDP going up by 0.1% between October and December.
Labour has been promising to improve the UK’s economic growth and address the rising cost of living for years.
But, the longer the conflict goes on, the worse it looks for the government’s plan to implement real change.
Feminists for Islam are strange creatures. Like Queers for Palestine, they are neither fish nor fowl, though they are often very foul indeed. One can imagine these rare beings, after extinction, being commented on with whispering, quizzical solemnity by some future David Attenborough: ‘And then, when they reached their desired destination… they disappeared.’ Kind of like salmon expiring when they finally reach their happy spawning time – except we’re not allowed to eat Queers for Palestine, rendering them neither use nor ornament.
Feminists for Islam are perhaps even odder, like those weird women who write love letters to serial killers. It’s a parody of a ghastly, abusive romantic relationship – suicidal empathy turned ideology, with a soupçon of exceptionalism: ‘Oh, he’d never hurt me!’ But very few of these strange beasts get to write their love letters over several thousand words in the London Review of Books, where in October 2001, the classics professor turned TV pundit, Dame Mary Beard, wrote of the dreadful events of 9/11 that the US ‘had it coming’. ‘World bullies, even if their heart is in the right place, will in the end pay the price… [for their] refusal to listen to what the “terrorists” have to say.’ She also called what al-Qaeda did an ‘extraordinary act of bravery’.
Two-thousand, nine-hundred and seventy-seven people were murdered on 9/11, including more than 400 first responders (among them 343 firefighters and paramedics) and hundreds of plane passengers. Many more have since died due to illnesses linked to toxic exposure at the site of the Twin Towers. They came from 77 different countries – truly ‘diverse’, as opposed to their 19 killers. Colm Tóibín wrote an excellent letter to the LRB about Beard’s essay:
‘Over the past 25 years in Ireland I have made a point of asking anyone who was at school with members of the IRA, the INLA, the UDA and the UVF what these people were like at the age of 10. All have agreed that each child displayed a nasty early sign of terrorism long before he had a “cause”. Had a cause not come their way, these people would have beaten their dogs or their wives and children, attacked one another at hurling matches or taken out their resentment on a long back garden. Would Mary Beard refer to these actions as “extraordinary acts of bravery”?’
As if it couldn’t get worse, AI tells me that Beard is ‘celebrated for her sharp insights, especially on Roman life, women in history and bringing classical studies into mainstream culture, making her a “national treasure”’. Of course she is. The watchwords of NT-ism are ‘diversity’ and ‘inclusivity’ – but the approved views on everything from breakfast to Brexit, penises on women to Palestine, must be held. NTs are the cuddly face of the enemy within, part of the never-ending war against anyone who dares think differently from their betters and wetters. Many are little more than peppy propagandists, there to make us swallow through the medium of sport and entertainment what we have already choked on and vomited up when it was fed to us straight. The UK National Treasure gang can easily embrace a woman who, if she saw her best female friend being ‘done’ by a member of Hamas at one end and a member of Hezbollah at the other, would probably ask the poor woman what she said to provoke them.
Beard is still writing pash-notes to Islam, but in somewhat shorter form these days, posting on X this week: ‘On the question of whether churches should be allowed to become mosques, let’s remember that the Parthenon was originally a “pagan” temple, then was converted into a Christian church, then became a mosque. This kind of conversion is not historically unusual.’
An X-er calling himself Roman Helmet Guy had a good comeback:
‘Hi, I’m Mary Beard. You should be okay with your churches becoming mosques. Why? Because the Turks once violently conquered the Greeks, then converted their churches into mosques. Were the Greeks okay with that? No, millions died to stop it. But you should be. Trust me, I’m a scholar.’
Does Beard really believe that Islam is having an entirely benign effect on British society, even without turning churches into mosques? What does she think about the status of women in Muslim enclaves? Or about ‘family voting’ (Which makes it sound so cosy, like a ‘family-size’ bag of sweets)? The rape gangs? The petulant complaints about and violent attacks on Christian street preachers? The unparalleled violence and intimidation of our tiny Jewish community? Does she have that miraculous ability, like so many of her Lady Muck type, to only take in the information she wants to take in and dismiss opposing views as simply the great unwashed being silly? Or does a tiny part of her understand that Islam conquers by force – and secretly like the idea?
I’ve reached a stage in life when the extraordinary way some people get their kicks rarely surprises me. But if there’s no masochistic kink involved, the naivety Beard displays is extraordinary in one so lengthily and expensively educated.
Even when, in 2012, she was picked on by the ghastly AA Gill, I found it hard to care, though naturally I’d normally stand up for a woman called ‘too ugly for television’ by a puppet-faced monkey-killer. Referring to Channel 4’s The Undateables, in which various disabled and disfigured people sought love, Gill opined that Beard was ‘this far from being the subject of a Channel 4 dating documentary’ and should be ‘kept away from cameras altogether’. But even to this her response was annoying, whining ‘I was a bit hurt’ and ‘I felt stunned, as if someone had punched me’. Such pearl-clutching, from someone who considered that thousands of innocent people murdered by terrorists ‘had it coming’.
I thought I knew every awful thing about Beard, but in the course of writing this, I’ve discovered a new one. In 2018, after it was reported that Oxfam employees had been sexually exploiting impoverished girls and women, Beard tweeted: ‘Of course one can’t condone the (alleged) behaviour of Oxfam staff in Haiti and elsewhere. But I do wonder how hard it must be to sustain “civilised” values in a disaster zone.’ Unsurprisingly, this led many to respond with revulsion. The wimp then posted a photograph of herself crying, complaining that, ‘I find it hard to imagine that anyone out there could possibly think that I am wanting to turn a blind eye to the abuse of women and children’.
‘I actually can’t understand what it would be to be a woman without being a feminist’, this preposterous woman once said, rather incredibly in the light of her apparent sympathy for male violence over the years. Next time you’re tempted to tweet in support of various vile men, Dame Mary, try taking a look in the mirror first. And brush your hair, while you’re at it.
Julie Burchill is a spiked columnist. Follow her Substack, ‘Notes from the Naughty Step’, here.
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