Conservative peer Lord Biggar | Image by: Jeff Gilbert / Alamy

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This indispensable book makes clear what society has to lose if we do not fight ideological conformity and find the courage to publicly defend the right to disagree

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In The New Dark Age, Nigel Biggar poses a startling question. Is his book really necessary given that “the ground of the culture wars is already well-trodden”?

In short, yes. Because he’s personally been engaged in the “colonial front of the culture wars” (a polite description of the vicious way he endured a decade of being cancelled, traduced and hounded), his ‘lived experience’ has given rise to reflections and insights “that are not… common”. Moreover, his unique observations offer solutions, not just complaints.

Describing the visceral way that ‘cancel culture’ works in practice is a public service. It sends a particular shiver to read, “my book was cancelled – and I was, so my wife tells me, devastated”.

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It’s a riposte to sneering accusations that culture wars are phoney, artificially created by ‘victims’ for bad faith political ends. Shooting down these straw men can be exhausting. Reading the shocking details of how uninvited and poisonous the two main ‘cancel Biggar’ campaigns were should be a lesson for all who imagine that they won’t ever become targets.

A brief study of Biggar’s résumé might suggest he’s an unusual recipient of vitriolic political hate, more donnish than activist. Today he’s well-known as a Conservative peer, an internationally renowned heterodox academic, described by one reviewer as “a sort of British Jordan Peterson in less interesting suits”. But actually, he voted Labour for 13 years, remain in 2016 and, until recently, was a Guardian subscriber. He is an avowed liberal, carefully dissecting the differing way that word is used, and settling on John Stuart Mill’s idea “that a free marketplace of ideas is the best way of testing and correcting prevailing orthodoxies”.

Some of the book’s vigour is undoubtedly driven by personal retribution against each of the academic critics he puts “in the dock”, whose intellectual dishonesty about his work he dissects remorselessly, even if he refers to himself in third person during chapter five “not to defend myself but rather to display the symptoms of academic corruption”. But mainly the book is a call to arms to create “liberal citizens who have the strength of character – the virtues – that make them capable of responding to alien viewpoints thoughtfully and civilly”. One of the barriers to that are institutions so in thrall to progressivism that they have created a culture which prefers to compel the iteration of dogma than encourage the discovery of “the truth of things”.

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The imposition of policies that discourage and penalise those who dare to express “reasonable doubts” – let alone speak “unfashionable truths” – creates a chilling climate in which “most would-be dissenters will tie their tongues and move into internal exile”, rather than risk their career and their reputation. This is catastrophic for freedom of speech; but he goes further to argue that “what we dare not stay out loud becomes, over time, too burdensome to carry on thinking”.

Understandably, the book focuses on universities as he’s most familiar with their practices – but also because these institutions “form the minds of graduates, who, now more than ever, go on to lead and manage the rest of society”.

The book made me think, even when I argued with it

However, the book demonstrates that institutional rot runs far beyond university campuses, citing similar corrosion in publishing, journalism, book reviewing (!), museums and the NHS gender services.

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It would be good to cut and paste his solution into the political realm: “Developing a custom of appointing to positions of authority not just managers but leaders… people who are not just preoccupied with keeping their show on the road but who also have a firm grasp of why the show deserves to be kept there at all”.

The book’s soul is about the current lack of, and need for, courage. Even when staff know of an egregious institutional betrayal of values, they surmise it “will cost less to pay lip service or work around the latest bureaucratic requirement than fight it”. They fear going public. The reaction of Cambridge academics in 2020 to the university’s censorious proposal to insist that they “respect” each other was largely silence, beyond a brave few. Yet in a secret ballot, the proposal was defeated 1,378 to 208, suggesting “a small and vociferous minority had cowed a liberal but risk-averse majority out of speaking its mind”.

Biggar’s tale, of having his scholarship misrepresented while being unjustly labelled a racist bigot, is all too familiar. But what makes for disturbing reading is the insidious and cowardly ways that victims of cancel culture are treated by colleagues. Even friends look the other way, “passively mute” in the face of injustice. Biggar himself says of his experience: “It was as if I had become diseased, and they were terrified of contagion”. Even those who were supportive did so furtively, rendezvousing in “deserted cafes… at tables behind screens where no-one could see”.

I usually disapprove of comparisons with the Nazi era, but Biggar effectively uses the analogy – with evidence – when it comes to academic cowardice in 1930s Germany: the “fear of contagion by association” led most ‘Aryans’ to shun and isolate ‘discredited professors’, leftists and Jews. He notes: “I am not saying that academics today tend to be Nazi. I am saying that many Nazi Party members were not in fact convinced Nazis; they simply wanted to get on with their lives and careers, undisturbed. Just like academics today.”

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The book made me think, even when I argued with it.

If you want to know more about contested truth claims around colonial history, this is a great taster. I may not be persuaded by all of Biggar’s evidenced claims about ‘Empire’. I’m more sympathetic to much of Frantz Fanon’s revolutionary anti-imperialism (as distinct from many of today’s post-colonial charlatans). But where we agree is on the dangers of using history for activist ends rather than presenting “the past on its own terms”.

I may not share his “monotheistic conviction” but I loved his moral clarity in detailing the virtues we should teach new generations. Finally, I’m keener on passionate discourse than Biggar, who lists it as a vice. But this work with its call to reinvigorate a liberal conviction in Enlightenment reason – now freshly under assault from as many on the right as the leftist cultural theorists this book skewers – is indispensable.

Baroness Fox of Buckley is a non-affiliated peer

The New Dark Age: Why Liberals Must Win the Culture Wars

By: Nigel Biggar

Publisher: Polity

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Regular exercise can help to manage blood pressure, because it makes our hearts stronger.

But according to a huge 2023 study, which looked at 270 trials from 1990-2023, “isometric” exercises might be the most effective at the job, with “wall sits” the best performer among these.

Researchers found that isometric exercise was more likely, on average, to lower blood pressure than aerobic exercise training, dynamic resistance training, combined training, and high-intensity interval training, though all forms were still immensely helpful.

What is isometric exercise?

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It involves keeping your body still while you tense specific muscles for a set period of time. You don’t move your joints during the movement.

“Isometric exercise” is sometimes called “static” exercise.

It is the opposite of “dynamic,” or “isotonic” exercise, which involves little load and consistent pressure on various muscles. For example, running and swimming.

Most forms of exercise involve a combination of isometric and isotonic exercise, though some are 100% one or the other.

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What are some examples of isometric exercises?

• Wall sits
• Planks
• Glute bridges
• Side planks
• V-holds
• Calf raises
• Hollow holds
• Copenhagen planks.

In the 2023 study we mentioned earlier, published in the BMJ, wall sits (placing your back against a wall with your thighs parallel to the ground) were the most effective of the isometric exercises for lowering blood pressure.

Does that mean I should only do isometric exercises?

The best approach to exercise seems to be a mixture of weight training and aerobic training. This has been linked to increased longevity compared to sticking to one or the other.

Speaking to the British Heart Foundation, senior cardiac nurse, Joanne Whitmore, said: “Exercise is good for your heart health and health in general. It can reduce the risk of heart and circulatory diseases by up to a third.

“Aerobic exercise in particular can help the heart and circulatory system work better through lowering blood pressure. Current guidelines also encourage muscle-strengthening exercises, like yoga or Pilates.

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“It’s encouraging to see other forms of exercise explored in this research as we know that those who take on exercise they enjoy, tend to carry on for longer, which is key in maintaining lower blood pressure.

“However, there are other lifestyle choices that can benefit your blood pressure. These include keeping to a healthy weight, eating a balanced diet, cutting down on salt, not drinking too much alcohol and taking any prescribed medication”.

Speak to your doctor if you have a heart condition and want to take up new exercise, she added.

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A Scottish parliament candidate has criticised celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay for participating in “one of the most shameful activities in Scotland.”

Robert Pownall, standing in the Edinburgh Central seat, has called on Ramsay to “do the right thing”. This is after footage resurfaced from an episode of Ramsay’s show, The F Word. In it, he travels to the Isle of Lewis to cook and eat young gannet chicks – known as “guga”.

In the segment, Ramsay is seen recoiling from the bird’s carcass. He describes the smell as “worse than rotten eggs” and says it “looks like something out of an Alien film.”

Pownall said the footage was “deeply disturbing and disrespectful.”

The criticism comes as Pownall launches his bid for Scottish parliament. He’s campaigning as a giant gannet, demanding the removal of the legal exemption that allows the guga hunt to continue.

Each year, a group of hunters travels to the uninhabited island of Sula Sgeir. They take gannet chicks from their nests using poles and nooses before killing them with blows to the head. They take the birds, who aren’t yet old enough to fly, back to the Isle of Lewis where they sell and consume them as a local delicacy.

The guga hunt is Scotland’s last remaining legal seabird hunt. It’s legal due to a special exemption in the Wildlife and Countryside Act.

Gordon Ramsay accused of ‘celebrating cruel activity’

Speaking on 27 April, independent candidate Pownall said:

Gordon Ramsay travelled hundreds of miles to take part in the killing of defenceless seabird chicks and turned it into entertainment. That is shameful.

This cruel activity should be challenged, not celebrated.

The comments come amid growing concern over the status of gannets and other seabirds.

Sula Sgeir, the island where the hunt takes place, is the only Special Protection Area for Gannets in Scotland to have shrunk while others grow. That’s according to documents which Pownall’s organisation Protect the Wild obtained. Pownall says this shows the hunt is undermining the colony’s ability to recover.

Gannets have also been hit hard by avian flu, with populations declining significantly in recent years. Pownall added:

Gannets are already under extreme pressure from disease, climate change and industrial fishing. They cannot afford another threat – least of all one driven by human greed.

This practice is not about survival, necessity, or nourishing communities. It is about killing wild animals for tradition and taste. And that is simply not okay.

The candidate has now issued an open letter to Gordon Ramsay, accusing him of turning the hunt into a “spectacle” and calling on him to now publicly oppose the practice.

Pownall is aiming to bring national attention to the issue ahead of the 2026 Scottish Parliament election, and is calling on all parties and the future government to commit to ending the guga hunt.

Featured image via the Canary

By The Canary

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There are policies in what we condescendingly call ‘developing countries’ that actually make them more advanced than the UK in crucial ways.

Developing countries and home ownership

Things like homes and utilities are the basics of life, yet countries we refer to as ‘developing’ often have better models than nations we call ‘advanced’.

Many lower-income countries have high rates of home ownership. Kazakhstan tops the table with 98% of the population owning their own home. In Laos, it’s 96%, and in India, it’s 87%. Many countries in Eastern Europe also have home ownership rates of above 90%.

And then there’s the UK, where 65% of people own their own home. Actually owning the place one lives in makes sense because one isn’t renting and has a place to call their own. It’s a better option than private or state landlordism.

Water ownership

Water is another essential and in developing countries, 90% have water in public ownership.

While state ownership doesn’t solve everything on its own, it’s more efficient to remove profit from essentials or natural monopolies. Non-effective management or a lack of investment can happen in the public or private sector.

Then there’s the UK, where water and sewage is privatised and investment goes to dividends rather than fixing issues.

As stated, ‘developing countries’ with public ownership can also suffer from a lack of investment but the basic policy of non-privatisation is more advanced for utilities.

Electricity ownership

Further, in surveyed developing countries, 71% had electricity in majority public ownership.

What about the UK? Well, even the national grid is privatised. The grid infrastructure made £5 billion in profit in 2025.

The UK previously had publicly owned utilities and a higher home ownership rate. So we’ve actually ‘advanced’ in the wrong direction, while ‘developing’ countries are ahead in some quite critical ways.

Featured image via Pixabay/ sarangib

By James Wright

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Thousands of protestors marched in Belfast at the weekend to condemn the north of Ireland’s appalling rates of violence against women. Between 2020 and 2025, a shocking 30 women were murdered. This is the highest rate across Britain and Ireland, and over three times the figure in the south of Ireland for the same period.

The socialist-feminist movement ROSA organised the march. The route went from the Royal Courts of Justice to City Hall. Protestors held banners reading “Not One More”, meaning no one else should suffer the fate of women like Natalie McNally. She was horrifically murdered by her partner in 2022 while 15 weeks pregnant.

Natalie’s brother Brendan spoke at the City Hall. He said of his sister:

I knew her as the gentlest of people who would have sympathised for anyone in a difficult situation. She worked here in Belfast and supported and was involved in various activist movements.

“Criminal negligence”: vulnerable women left exposed by housing shortage

People Before Profit’s Fiona Ferguson cited the economic factors endangering women under our cruel capitalist model:

In 2026, violent misogyny and sexism should be a relic of the past, it should be a matter for the dustbin of history. But the reality is that right now, today, far too many women in our society are living in violent homes that they cannot escape from.

There are no public houses available because the waiting lists are too long. Refuges are oversubscribed because cuts have been made by the storming executives to services like women did. And women do not have economic freedom because of cuts to social security and they cannot escape. That’s criminal negligence.

The latest horrendous figures show 50,000 people waiting for a home. Ferguson’s comments echo those we previously reported from Sinn Féin MLA Deirdre Hargey, who called out:

…blockages in housing for women who are in situations where there is violence perpetrated against them.

ROSA themselves have cited the need to “end poverty wages” and fight back against an economic order that:

…allows wealthy and powerful men to abuse ordinary people rampantly.

Ferguson also slammed the far-right who falsely claim to act as the protectors of women and children:

We are facing a growing global right-wing movement that is coming for our rights. Fuck them! Right here in Ireland, North and South, there are people who want to see the politics of Donald Trump brought to our streets and brought to our doorsteps.

We cannot let them. Some of those people are organising far-right rallies in our city centre. Some of them are writing laws in Stormont.

One of the ways that the far-right are trying to grow is by using the fear that women face every day. Fear of violence, fear of sexual harassment, fear of rape and fear of femicide. And they want us to blame migrants and they want us to blame trans people. We won’t do it.

Research by The Detail found that:

Almost half those arrested for race hate disorder in Belfast last August had previously been reported to the PSNI for domestic abuse…

Continuing austerity in Belfast impacting women

ROSA asked women why they were marching in Belfast. One activist said:

I’m marching against gender-based violence because Stormont claims to care about violence against women and girls while making cuts to vital voluntary and charitable services that support victims and survivors.

This is likely a reference to changes the Department of Health made to grant allocation in 2023, that resulted in some women’s support charities losing money.

Another recent change by Westminster resulted in a nearly £16 million drop to funding of voluntary and community sector organisations in the Six Counties, particularly those providing support for unemployed people. Stormont has not found a way to plug the gap. The Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action (NICVA) specifically cited the impact this would have on women.

Despite the many moving placards at the protest, ROSA used their Facebook platform to call for people to get actively involved in campaigning for an end to misogynistic violence:

Not one more can’t just be a slogan – it must be a call to action! DM this page if you want to be involved in a campaign against gender based violence.

Featured image via ROSA

By Robert Freeman

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Donald Trump has made clear that he believes ‘shooter’ Cole Allen’s ‘manifesto‘ comments about a “paedophile rapist and traitor” were about him. The slip came as a rattled Trump denied any wrongdoing during a 60 Minutes interview after the event.

Trump: yes, the manifesto was about me…

Trump’s interviewer Norah O’Donnell asked about Allen’s “stunning” document, which was sent to family members minutes before the incident. She then noted that it said Allen was “no longer willing to permit a paedophile, rapist and traitor to coat my hands in his crimes”.

Trump lashed out, claiming he was being asked this because the 60 Minutes crew are “horrible people”. But, as O’Donnell pointed out, he had immediately assumed the “paedophile rapist and traitor” in the comment was him. Cue more tantrums and denial:

Trump even claimed he had been “totally exonerated”. Not quite. He appears thousands of times in the Epstein files, even though his Department of Justice has released only two percent of them, in heavily redacted form. And he is accused in those files, among other things, of raping and beating at least one thirteen-year-old child and watching as the same or another thirteen-year-old’s baby was dumped in a lake.

Jean Carroll also won almost $90m in damages from the president in a civil case after she accused him of sexual assault. Although the case did not prove rape according to New York State’s narrow definition of penetrative sex, appeal judge Lewis A Kaplan said that the allegation of rape was “substantially true” and Trump’s appeal argument was “entirely unpersuasive“. “Totally exonerated”? Right.

Even CBS, now owned and run by pro-Trump fanatical Israel supporters, can rattle Trump into such telling give-aways.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

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The post JK Rowling vs Alastair Campbell: the lies aren’t working anymore appeared first on spiked.

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On a sunlit Sunday in April, the London Marathon rewrote the limits of human endurance. Sabastian Sawe of Kenya crossed the finish line in 1:59:30, becoming the first man to record an official sub-two-hour marathon. He shaved 35 seconds off the previous world record.

The race that changed the record books

From the gun, the elite men’s race unfolded as a high‑precision experiment in pacing and resolve.

Sawe and a small group of rivals pushed a relentless tempo across the 42.195‑kilometre course.

Making a decisive solo move in the final two kilometres, Sawe sprinted down The Mall past Buckingham Palace to seal history. Yomif Kejelcha of Ethiopia, making his marathon debut, finished a breath behind in 1:59:41. Jacob Kiplimo took bronze in 2:02:28.

The numbers underline how extraordinary the performance was: Sawe averaged roughly 2:50 per kilometre and reached the half-marathon split in about 59:45 – a pace that demands both physiological excellence and tactical courage.

Reaction

Sawe’s reaction captured the mixture of humility and conviction that often accompanies epochal sporting moments. Reflected on the generational shift in marathon running and the preparation that made the run possible, Sawe said:

for the new generation, to run a record is possible.

He added that he had been “well‑prepared” and “had a lot of courage to push.”

Kejelcha, who had shadowed Sawe for much of the race, praised Sawe’s stance on clean sport. He noted the example Sawe set by undergoing extra voluntary drug tests before previous victories. He also described the approach as “very important for clean sport”, suggesting he might adopt similar measures in future.

A Marathon like no other

Breaking two hours in a marathon has been a long‑standing milestone.

Eliud Kipchoge famously ran 1:59:40 in Vienna in 2019 during the Nike‑backed 1:59 Challenge. This was a controlled event that used rotating pacemakers and other aids, and therefore was not eligible for an official world record.

Sawe’s run in London, by contrast, came in an open championship setting on a largely flat city course. It is now recorded in the official annals of the sport.

The progression of the men’s world record over the past quarter century, from times in the 2:05 range to the sub‑two barrier, reflects advances in training, nutrition, shoe technology, and race strategy. Sawe’s performance will be studied for how those elements combined on a single day to produce a new benchmark.

Women’s race and wheelchair events

The elite women’s race produced its own headline: Tigst Assefa of Ethiopia retained her London title and lowered her own course record to 2:15:41, improving on the mark she set the previous year.

Assefa pulled away in the closing stages to hold off Hellen Obiri and Joyciline Jepkosgei, who finished within seconds of one another.

In the wheelchair divisions, Switzerland’s Marcel Hug extended his dominance with a sixth consecutive and eighth overall men’s win. Meanwhile, Catherine Debrunner claimed her third straight women’s wheelchair title after an electrifying sprint finish.

Record-Breaking Aftermath

Sawe’s sub‑two performance will ripple through elite distance running. Coaches and athletes will dissect splits, fuelling strategies, and environmental conditions to understand how to replicate or counter such a run.

Race organisers and governing bodies will also face renewed scrutiny over course certification, pacing rules, and anti‑doping safeguards as the sport adapts to a new normal where the two‑hour barrier is no longer theoretical but an official milestone that has been passed in championship conditions.

Going Forward

For the public, the moment is special. It was a reminder that athletic boundaries are porous and records are not untouchable.

Sawe’s run in London will stand as a defining chapter in marathon history – one that reframes what the next generation of distance runners will consider possible.

By Faz Ali

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Gen V star Jaz Sinclair has spoken out following the news that the show has been dropped by Prime Video.

Jaz played Marie Moreau in both seasons of the The Boys spin-off, sharing the screen with the likes of Lizze Broadway, London Thor, Derek Luhn and the late Chance Perdomo.

However, over the weekend it was announced that, despite glowing reviews for both seasons of Gen V, the satirical superhero series would not be getting a third outing.

Reacting to the news on Sunday night, Jaz told her Instagram followers: “There’s so much I wanna (and will) say, but for today I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart.

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“I’m so happy you’re here and I’m so grateful for this incredible experience.”

Although Gen V will not be moving forward, executive producers Eric Kripke and Evan Goldberg have said in a statement that its central characters will be back in action in the ongoing fifth season of The Boys, as well as other projects set in the same universe.

“While we wish we could keep the party going another season at Godolkin, we’re committed to continuing the Gen V characters’ stories in The Boys season five and other VCU projects on the horizon,” they insisted.

“You’ll see them again.”

Season five of The Boys is currently airing on Prime Video.

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Like previous seasons, The Boys’ latest run has once again been a hit with critics, receiving a coveted score in the high 90s on the reviews aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes.

It was previously reported that this fifth season would be the last outing of The Boys, although more spin-offs are still in the works.

Most notably, a new off-shoot of The Boys titled Vought Rising is expected to arrive on Prime Video in 2027.

Aya Cash and Jensen Ackles will take the lead as Stormfront and Soldier Boy, respectively, having both previously played the characters in early seasons of The Boys.

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