A play in three acts:
And you thought ours were spineless.
Poor old Anas, though.
If 24 hours is a long time in politics these days, a week is forever.
And a month hardly even bears thinking about.
As for a year and a half, well, the less said the better.
Sir Robin Wales, Labour mayor of Newham from 2002 to 2018, will become Reform’s London director of local government. Wales’ close aide Clive Furness will be Reform’s mayoral candidate in Newham. Watch along above…
Green party deputy leader Mothin Ali has said the lies of Keir Starmer and Tory MP Alec Shelbrooke could get him killed. He has already received death threats as a result of the smears, made by the two MPs under ‘parliamentary privilege’ that protects them from legal action.
Shelbrooke claimed on Monday 2 March that Ali had been “protesting in support of the ayatollah”. This was a reference to Iranian cleric Ali Khamenei, deliberately murdered along with his family by Israeli bombs. Ali had done no such thing. Instead he had participated in an anti-war protest against the ongoing illegal US-Israeli attacks on Iran.
Shelbrooke claimed to be:
appalled – not shocked, I am afraid to say – as I am sure the PM was, to see at the weekend the deputy leader of the Green Party once again protesting in support of the ayatollah.
The hatred and fear that runs through Leeds now, which has been whipped up at times by Councillor Mothin, is a disgrace.
Rather than correct this disgraceful lie, Starmer chose to try to excuse Labour’s disastrous by-election defeat last week by giving the claim his racist endorsement:
I think we were all shocked by the actions of the deputy leader of the Green Party – although perhaps not surprised, given that party’s recent turn of direction.
Ali pointed out the spinelessness of using privilege to smear him, telling Middle East Eye that:
He can say what he wants in there and get away with it. I want to see how brave he is. Will he repeat this outside parliament?
The PM is just another coward and allied with the Tories. He’s let down the British public and he needs to resign. The Green Party has been accused of sectarianism. This is why that’s wrong.
They will get me killed…over the last couple of days I’ve received about 20 death threats.
Ali went on to say that he is not a supporter of Iran’s government but was outraged by the US-Israel murder of more than 160 schoolgirls by bombing their school:
A whole load of little girls had just been blown to bits. I’m not supposed to feel anything about that?
When black and brown kids get blown up no one cares. If I left politics and went for a job interview, this is the first thing people would see online.
Party leader Zack Polanski said Starmer showed “blatant Islamophobia” and had smeared “a caring man of principle standing up for peace”. He added that the comments show the establishment’s fear of peace activists, especially Muslims:
There’s nothing the establishment is more scared of than a calm, kind, thoughtful gardener who happens to be a Muslim man in politics.
Like Starmer, Shelbrooke is an ardent supporter of Israeli murder and apartheid. In June 2025, as Israel illegally attacked Iran and murdered civilians before getting its arse handed to it in the so-called ’12-day war’, Shelbrooke told MPs that:
I want to put it on the record that Israel has my absolute full support in the action that it is taking.
Starmer, of course, does not have the spine to stand outside number 10 and repeat his smears, as he knows the response his heinous remarks will get. Not even an anonymous ‘Number 10 spokesperson’ would answer requests to clarify or correct Starmer’s lie.
Based on this episode and much more, he and Shelbrooke are racist, genocide-enabling scum pandering to the worst instincts of the foul, pea-brain right. And that’s not under parliamentary privilege.
Featured image via YouTube screenshot/Hugo Harvey
The post Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride responds to the Spring Statement appeared first on Conservative Home.
Rafe Fletcher is the founder of CWG.
My memories of Japan are coloured by British triumphalism. In 2019, I was in Oita to see England thrash Australia in the Rugby World Cup. And last November, I saw Oasis play to a sell-out crowd in Tokyo.
Touring acts are more welcome than those putting down permanent roots. Japan’s foreign resident population is growing and, at four million, now constitutes around three percent of the population. They are readily identifiable in such an ethnically homogeneous country.
Japan’s new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who models herself on Britain’s own Iron Lady, won a landslide victory last month. She is pro-market and firm on immigration. But, as yet, her latter stance is heavier on rhetoric than policy. Because Japan is in a precarious position. How does it balance public demand to retain a clear national identity with the structural challenges of the world’s oldest population? Barring a sudden reproductive resurgence or a robotics revolution, foreign workers have to fix lopsided demographics.
Japan is an outlier because national identity is so intertwined with ethnicity. But the subject is nonetheless getting a bit more mainstream in Britain. Elon Musk recently swung behind Rupert Lowe’s splinter group Restore, because it takes predictions of a white British minority seriously. Nigel Farage’s caution about who that conversation encourages seemingly lost him the prospect of Musk’s backing.
Polite conversation avoids the topic because Britain’s demographic transformation was unplanned.
In 1945, Britain was almost as ethnically uniform as contemporary Japan. Politicians did not anticipate that post-war immigration from the Caribbean and South Asia would change that. It was then imagined as a temporary response to acute labour shortages. In 1956, debates in the House of Lords still referred to Commonwealth arrivals as “visitors”. The historian Colin Holmes notes that migrants largely shared that impression, writing in John Bull’s Island that they viewed themselves as “temporary labourers or sojourners…hoping to return home with needed capital.”
Social change was an unintended consequence of addressing economic needs. That does not make it inherently good or bad. But it suggests the country never really confronted what British identity meant once it could no longer be assumed. The familiarity of language and looks is easier to grasp than values when it comes to creating a sense of belonging.
That search for shared values is made harder by what Suella Braverman condemns as the “casual, anything-goes approach to culture and identity”. Nebulous catch-all appeals to “tolerance”, or worse, “diversity”, are flimsily ascribed as defining national characteristics. It lacks any active sense of participation. It undervalues Britain by negating any real commitment to it.
It’s here, of course, that I must go back to Asia to suggest a different way of doing things. In Singapore, my immigration status is made very apparent. There is little sensitivity in designating Employment Pass (EP) holders like me as “foreigner” in official correspondence. Singapore’s foreign population is substantial – constituting almost two million of its six million population – but clearly delineated. We are not part of the civic realm and have no access to state-funded services.
There is a route to deeper integration through Permanent Residency (PR). But there are strict qualifying criteria and even successful applicants do not gain permanent rights. PR holders must renew their status every five years. It can be revoked for criminal misconduct or a deemed lack of economic contribution. Increased civic status also comes with accompanying responsibilities. Most notably, your male offspring will be subject to compulsory National Service at 18.
Every year, around 25,000 PRs go one step further and obtain citizenship. There is no explicitly ethnic aspect to this. But it’s generally recognised that it follows founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew’s strategy of pursuing a certain demographic equilibrium. He pledged that Singapore would always be majority Chinese with smaller Malay and Indian minorities. New citizenships broadly preserve that balance.
Speaking at Imperial College in 2002, Lee argued that Britain’s lack of similar micromanagement breeds an ailing society. He said that importing workers without any plan for uniting races or cultures led to ghettoisation. Something that was evident only last week as the Greens won in Gorton and Denton by appealing to extranational affiliations in the Middle East.
But such technocratic planning is not possible in Britain. The Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood revealed in November that the previous government’s attempt to fill between 6,000 and 40,000 jobs in the health and care sector led to the arrival of 616,000 individuals between 2022 and 2024. If Britain is overshooting those targets by 1,400 percent, it is unlikely to fare too well with strategically planned quotas.
The more pertinent lesson lies in what Lee observes Britain has lost since 1945: “that quiet pride and self-confidence, that national cohesiveness that marked out the British people after victory in World War Two.”
It stems from insecurity in what being British really means. It is no longer something simply inherited nor is it anything easily articulated. Restoring confidence instead requires a sense of reciprocity. Singapore does this well in its prohibition of dual citizenship and enforcement of National Service. It forces citizens to actively participate and forego any other national loyalties.
Britain, by contrast, asks very little of its people. Even though it’s to my advantage, I’m always astonished at the treatment of Brits abroad. As Dubai expats discover now, we retain full access to state services without any of the onerous tax implications. Similarly, it allows its passport to be part of an international portfolio – somewhere to hedge your bets rather than commit.
And it offers few binding experiences to really bring an increasingly diverse population together. Unfortunately it came towards the back end of his premiership but a similar national service scheme was one of Sunak’s brighter ideas, particularly when university increasingly looks an imprudent bet.
Britain needs a more muscular vision of identity rooted in commitment. Pride cannot reside only in the vestiges of cultural triumphs abroad. It must inspire loyalty at home too.
When Netflix first confirmed it was making a reality TV spin-off of Squid Game, you may recall the announcement was almost unanimously panned.
However, we have to concede that the ensuing series, Squid Game: The Challenge, ended up winning us over in the end, even if it is more guilty pleasure than TV treasure.
After two seasons of the popular reality competition – which offers one of the biggest cash prizes in telly history – the streaming platform has now announced that it is upping the ante with a new celebrity run, dubbed Squid Game: The VIP Challenge.
On Wednesday, Netflix unveiled the eight contestants on its VIP line-up, with Spice Girls icon Mel B among them.
Also on the line-up are The Traitors US fave Dylan Efron (otherwise known as Zac’s brother); basketball player (and Keeping Up With The Kardashians fixture) Tristan Thompson; and Viper, a contestant you might remember from the second season of Squid Game: The Challenge, who won a fan vote to be chosen for the new VIP series.
The full cast is as follows:
A post on Netflix’s Tudum outlet teases: “What’s one way to raise the stakes in an already stressful, deeply unpredictable, and downright diabolical competition? Let eight VIPs enter the game.
“Celebrities are shaking up the world of Squid Game to put their wits, strategies, and skill sets to the ultimate test in Squid Game: The VIP Challenge.”
In the UK, there are about 10,000 children and young people living with a form of arthritis
In every constituency, there will be young people having to navigate the difficulties of growing up with this chronic illness. This is why Arthritis UK is bringing a young people’s art exhibition to Parliament next week to shine a light on their experiences so that they receive the recognition and care they deserve.
Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) is a form of inflammatory arthritis diagnosed in people under the age of 16. Receiving a diagnosis at such a young age can be an overwhelming experience, and this disease impacts all stages of what can be considered a balanced and fair upbringing.
For young people, having arthritis translates into missing school or playtime for medical appointments, having to learn complex medical terminology alongside completing homework, balancing fatigue with maintaining a healthy social life, and isolation proven to impact relationships and family planning.
Arthritis UK believes that the needs of young people living with arthritis have been neglected, leading to poor diagnosis and poor outcomes from a lack of support, and stigma. This World Young Rheumatic Disease Day (WORD Day) (18th March), the charity is calling on MPs to challenge the common misconception that arthritis is ‘just an old person’s disease’.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has a personal connection to the cause, often speaking about his own mother’s diagnosis of Still’s disease, which is a form of JIA.
In the run-up to the WORD Day, Arthritis UK is proud to welcome just a fraction of the children and young people across the UK living with JIA into Parliament to celebrate the opening of an art exhibition, ‘Inside Arthritis’. The exhibition will be displayed in the Upper Waiting Hall (9th to 12th March), and parliamentarians will have the chance to hear first-hand the very real challenges and needs of these young ambassadors.
The artwork displayed in the exhibition has been sourced from Arthritis UK’s ‘Joint Creativity’ art programme. ‘Joint Creativity’ educates young people about the science behind their condition through fun and accessible mediums. These interactive sessions are an opportunity to connect with a community that understands the difficulties of growing up with a chronic illness, which can often be an isolating experience.
Arthritis can equally impact mental health as much as physical health, with a recent report from Arthritis UK, Left Waiting, Left Behind, revealing that one in four people living with arthritis experience anxiety most of or all the time.
Therefore, having a creative outlet can make understanding these processes less intimidating and encourage young people to feel in control of their condition.
This is true for Penny, 14, from Kent, who lives with JIA and has been a longstanding art club attendee and said:
“Joint Creativity made me feel less alone because I was meeting other young people with JIA, talking with others who really understand because they are going through the same things.
“There’s still a misconception around JIA because people still think that arthritis is something that only affects older people. I think the fact younger people get it needs to be more well-known because that awareness would bring more understanding.”
Arthritis UK, the UK’s leading arthritis charity, works to ensure that all people living with arthritis and other musculoskeletal conditions are cared for and represented. Whether that be through funding world-leading research, provision of health information to patients and professionals or through services, such as the Young People and Families Service.
Deborah Alsina MBE, Arthritis UK’s Chief Executive, will be speaking at the opening event and looks forward to hearing the empowering young artists’ stories first hand.
Deborah said: “’Inside Arthritis’ is a great opportunity for parliamentarians to hear first-hand from young people about the stigma and challenges of living with arthritis.
“Like the Prime Minister, many of us know someone living with arthritis, the resilience it requires and the knock-on impact it can have on quality of life and mental health. This is particularly acute for those affected earlier in life; one study has shown nearly 60 per cent of children and young people with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis had or required mental health support.
“Current polices and services do not adequately reflect the impact on both the individual, family and society. We hope that by hearing from our inspirational young people, parliamentarians will be inspired to help us advocate for greater change and, in doing so, tackle the misconception that arthritis is an older person’s disease.”
One final chapter in the Game Of Thrones saga is coming to our screens – this time in the form of a feature-length film.
Almost seven years on from one of the most polarising finales in TV history, screenwriter Beau Willimon – best known for his work on House Of Cards and the Star Wars off-shoot Andor – is said to be writing the script for a new movie version of Game Of Thrones.
The news was first reported by Page Six, and later confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter.
Game Of Thrones came to an end in 2019, with a dramatic turn of events that saw Jon Snow offing Daenerys Targaryen, and Sansa Stark ending up on the Iron Throne.
While the last episodes of Game Of Thrones weren’t exactly well-received by fans at the time, that certainly hasn’t stopped the Westeros universe from expanding in the years since.
The popular prequel series House Of The Dragon, set two centuries before the events of Game Of Thrones, is expected to air its third season next year, with James Norton and Tom Cullen among those joining regulars Matt Smith, Emma D’Arcy, Olivia Cooke and Rhys Ifans. A fourth has already been commissioned by US broadcaster HBO.
Meanwhile, a spin-off of a very different nature premiered earlier this year, in the form of A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms, based on Game Of Thrones author Tales Of Dunk And Egg books.
The series was notable in that it vastly differed tonally from other adaptations set in the Game Of Thrones universe, with much more emphasis on comedy than fans are probably used to – which split critics down the middle.
A spin-off centred around the hero Jon Snow was also heavily rumoured to be in the works, but this project was eventually shelved when Kit Harington pulled out.
Game Of Thrones, House Of The Dragon and A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms are all streaming on Now and Sky in the UK.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has delivered the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) forecasts for the economy. While it predicts annual real household income growth of 0.6%, this figure is skewed by high earners. The actual economic outlook shows why the ideology of neoliberalism (austerity, privatisation and deregulation) is collapsing.
The incomes of low earning people at the bottom 20% versus the top earning 20% shows why the OBR isn’t providing a complete analysis. The OBR calculates real household income growth through dividing total income by the population.
But in 2022, for example, the lower earning 20% received just £13,218 in average annual income. That’s compared to the top 20%, which received £83,687 – over 12 times more.
The issue is compounded by the increased earnings of CEOs. The High Pay Centre calculated that median CEO pay increased by 6.8% in 2024/25 – far higher than the 0.6% average predicted for each year until 2029 in the forecast.
Median FTSE 100 CEO pay increased from £4.29m in 2023/24 to £4.58m in 2024/25, the highest it ever has been.
The OBR predicts inflation will fall from 3% in January to 2% at the end of 2026. Inflation impacts the real earnings increases for households. But neoliberalism means the privatisation of essentials, which is highly inflationary. If water, energy and other utilities were brought into public ownership it would mean lower costs for every person and business.
Take the UK agriculture sector. 40% of a farm’s total costs can be attributed to energy. Since privatisation of electricity began in 1990, average prices have more than doubled from around 6p per kwh (14p in 2023 prices) to 30p per kwh in 2023, according to Ofgem and Hansard figures. Meanwhile, analysis shows that average gas prices increased by 143% between 1992 and 2022.
When it comes to the food we eat everyday, over 60% is produced in the UK. These statistics demonstrate that that there could be a significant reduction in food prices through the nationalisation of energy. On top of that, all businesses would benefit from the democratisation of essentials through cheaper running costs. In fact, the government could mandate a national price drop throughout the economy via such public ownership of utilities.
This is not the possible negative impacts of deflation. Businesses would be earning the same via a national price drop through essentials nationalisation – prices would just be cheaper at a sustained level.
The end of neoliberal ideology through such public ownership, for example, would tackle the skewed figures in the OBR forecast and bring material improvements to people’s lives.
Featured image via the Canary
A senior MP has delivered a withering slapdown to Donald Trump after he mocked Keir Starmer over his response to the US and Israel’s bombing of Iran.
The US president said “this is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with” after Starmer initially refused to let the US use British bases to launch their attacks amid concerns the strikes broke international law.
The PM eventually changed his mind after Iran began bombing countries across the Middle East, putting British lives at risk.
Trump’s comments were the latest salvo in an ongoing war of words between him and Starmer which have caused the biggest rupture in the so-called “special relationship” between the UK and America in living memory.
Downing Street officials have been reluctant to further stoke the row by reacting to Trump’s Churchill jibe.
But appearing on GB News this morning, Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: “Trump is no Franklin Roosevelt either, is he?
“We Liberal Democrats have had our criticisms of Keir Starmer, we’ve been repeatedly frustrated that Keir Starmer hasn’t been speaking up and standing up to Donald Trump.
“But let’s be really clear about this. It’s Donald Trump who is trashing the special relationship, it’s Donald Trump who’s making the cost of living harder for British people with his ridiculous tariff war.
“And it’s Donald Trump that’s causing death and chaos in the Middle East through his illegal actions. So he needs to take a hard look in the mirror and rein it in a bit, I think.”
The Iran women’s national football team refused to sing the national anthem before their Asian Cup match against South Korea.
Iran’s women’s national football team refused to sing the anthem at the Asian Cup
Before the match against South Korea, the players did not perform the national anthem. The team stood in silence, while head coach Marzieh Jafari was seen smiling during its performance.
She… pic.twitter.com/KYUgFUwPyT
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) March 3, 2026
The team are in Australia for the tournament, and stood silently as the speakers played ‘Mehr-e Khavaran’ around the stadium.
Only one day before the game, US-Israeli strikes murdered Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He had ruled the country since 1989.
Iran lost 3-0, which is no surprise, given that the US and Israel are blowing their home country to smithereens.
After the game, journalists questioned the players at the press conference. The team coach, Marziyeh Jafari, said:
We shouldn’t be talking about these issues at all now.
Right now, the team is in a very important competition that holds great rights for women … next question.
The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) is reportedly monitoring the situation and will offer support to the players if needed.
Iran will face Australia on Thursday night, again on the Gold Coast.
Australian player Amy Sayer told journalists that the Iranian squad deserve respect for carrying on and playing, while the bombing of their nation intensifies.
Our heart goes out to them and their families, it’s a difficult situation and it’s really brave of them to be able to be here and to perform.
They played (on Monday), and they put on a really strong performance, even with the political climate that’s going on and the struggles that they might be going through.
I think we’re excited and looking forward to the game on Thursday … the best we can do to contribute is to just give them the best game of football that we’re able and to show them the respect on the field.
The Iranian national team is showing up. And given how brutally the US and Israel are bombing Iran, just that is hugely courageous.
Donald Trump and Netanyahu want the Iranians silent and compliant – yet the team showing up to play and standing together during the national anthem shows that they refuse for everything to be business as usual.
Featured image via Guardian Football/YouTube
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