Politics
Wings Over Scotland | The Tactics Of Suicide
Sorry, readers, we’ve been too busy boiling with rage at revolting, cretinous Americans for the last few days to trust ourselves with writing a full-length article, but we’ve just about calmed down enough in time for this month’s polling analysis.
Which is handy, because today is also the day of the Gorton and Denton by-election in Manchester (fun fact: a seat we’d very likely have lived in ourselves if not for Osama bin Laden, but that’s another story), and that throws up some interesting parallels.
But firstly let’s take a look at that Times story about a study which suggests that tactical voting from Labour supporters could give the SNP an outright majority at the Holyrood election in May.
The premise of the “global strategy and research” firm’s analysis is that Labour voters in Scotland hate Reform more than they hate the SNP. We’re a little sceptical of that, but it would be extremely revealing if it was true, because this site has been pointing out for some considerable time that there are in fact no meaningful areas of political dispute between Scottish Labour and the SNP.
(There is of course one big ABSTRACT one over the constitution, but since the SNP has no actual intention of, or strategy for, achieving independence it’s a moot point.)
Labour hate the SNP not for any ideological reasons but simply because they still feel like the SNP have stolen their “birthright” of power in Scotland, that the Scottish Parliament was expressly designed to enshrine forever until Alex Salmond smashed the walls down. They’ve been out of office for so long now that they can hardly even remember what they want it for, other than the ministerial salaries.
Voters, of course, are rather more susceptible to changing sides than the professional political class. Labour’s former voters in Scotland have already deserted en masse to the SNP, while half a million of the SNP’s voters stayed home or switched to the Tories in 2017, and Labour voters south of the border are now defecting in huge numbers in both directions – to Reform and the Greens – to the extent that Labour now look all but certain to lose in May in Wales, a country where they’ve won every single election in more than 100 years.
We’re still pretty doubtful, though, that they’d want to achieve this on purpose:
Stonehaven claim their figures show tactical votes from Scottish Labour supporters would condemn Labour to an abject third place, behind both the SNP and Reform.
SNP: 67 seats
Reform: 25
Labour: 15
Lib Dems: 8
Tories: 7
Greens: 7
(We quietly note in passing that obviously those 67 SNP seats in the projection are all constituency ones, with close to a million SNP list votes totally wasted. Who knew?)
And that doesn’t make a lot of sense. You don’t want BOTH of the parties you dislike the most miles in front of you, no matter which is worst. Now, that outcome might be unavoidable as the numbers stand, but in that case you also definitely don’t want one of them having an absolute majority, because if they don’t then you at least have a chance of SOME sort of political relevance and influence for the next five years.
(Because if the SNP don’t have a majority, they’ll need support from at least one other party to pass any sort of legislation, and on a case-by-case basis there’s always a chance that that party could be you.)
There’s also no chance whatsoever of Reform being in charge at Holyrood. Even if they did better than any poll has ever suggested – let’s say 30 seats – that’s a million miles short of enough to form a government even with another party on board, and neither Labour nor the SNP would form a coalition (formal or informal) with them, so whatever happens they’ll be shut out of power. There’s no risk to consider there.
So there’s no point in Labour voters voting according to whether they want an SNP government or not, because unless the polling numbers change to a pretty spectacular degree in the next eight weeks they’re getting an SNP government no matter what.
What they’re faced with is a straightforward choice between a very weak SNP government with – by its OWN admission – no mandate for independence, and a very strong SNP government with at least a superficially arguable claim to a mandate for independence. And that IS something of a risk.
(It would be an absurdly WEAK claim, and one that’d have no influence whatsoever on the UK government, but it’s a rhetorically strong one and at a minimum it would make Scottish Labour’s life even more of a misery than it currently is until 2031.)
Labour’s only hope of a sub-disastrous outcome for this election is that the SNP get (say) 50 seats and Labour get (say) 20, and become the only viable route to the SNP passing legislation (because none of the Greens, Lib Dems and Tories would have the numbers, and the SNP’s voters wouldn’t tolerate Reform support).
Reform, then, from Scottish Labour’s point of view, are a total irrelevance. It barely even matters how many MSPs Nigel Farage’s men get. The vital thing for Labour – their only hope of salvaging anything at all from their catastrophic polling – is to keep the SNP as far short of a majority as possible.
Now, voters don’t tend to think about things that way. They’re not playing seven-dimensional political chess, they just want someone reasonably close to a tolerable Parliamentary voice who might actually do something for them or their constituency.
But if the party has even some tiny shredded fragments of a collective brain left it should be drumming that bigger picture into its own supporters at branch meetings and on the doorsteps every chance it gets – “if you want Labour to have any chance of any degree of power for the next five years, for God’s sake don’t give either of your votes to the SNP”.
As our analysis last month showed, their best hope is in fact to tactically vote AGAINST the SNP in constituencies other than Labour strongholds (whether that’s for Reform or Lib Dems or Tories or even Greens), but stay Labour on the list vote.
(Because we know that tactical list voting is close to impossible in a PR system, but it’s very possible indeed on the constituency vote.)
At the extreme that could produce a super-hung Parliament in which not even any TWO parties could form a majority, meaning that every party would have power and influence in every vote.
From Labour’s perspective that’s a dream outcome from where they’re currently standing. It could even force a new election, something that would be beyond calamitous for the cash-strapped SNP but no problem for Labour with the UK party’s broad fiscal shoulders behind it.
So, give the SNP an absolute majority and a rhetorical battering ram, or reduce them to bit-part players in a 70%-Unionist chamber and maybe even nudge them over the cliff into bankruptcy before they can be bailed out by regaining loads of Westminster MPs in 2029? Even for the absolute dum-dums inhabiting Scottish Labour that ought to be a no-brainer.
But where does Gorton and Denton come in?
It comes in because it illustrates how difficult tactical voting can be to pull off. The anti-Reform, notionally left-wing vote in G&D is TWICE the Reform vote – 60% to 30%. There can be little doubt that most Labour voters would, if they can’t win themselves, prefer a Green MP to a Reform one, and definitely vice versa.
But because it’s not clear which of Labour and Green is most likely to win, they’re both fighting each other for ownership of the anti-Reform vote, which might just be enough to let Reform sneak through the middle. (Though it would be arithmetically almost impossible, and therefore politically seismic in multiple ways if they did.)
There are no such dilemmas in Scotland, however. A tactical vote for the SNP is plainly and indisputably insane from the point of view of a Labour supporter, for the reasons noted above. They’re going to struggle to even come second in this election, but their options are two VERY different kinds of third place – one apocalyptically bad (possibly even fatal), or one beyond their wildest fantasies.
The overwhelming statistical likelihood, in reality, is that May will produce a damp squib of a result that changes nothing. Whether there is or isn’t a “pro-indy majority”, and whatever the exact numbers are, it’s all but certain that we’ve got five more years of the same incompetent, malignant stagnation coming, at best.
But right out at the far edges of what COULD happen on the current figures are two outcomes – both dependent on tactical voting – which would be at least somewhat more interesting, and would amount to either the crippling of the SNP or the effective final destruction of Labour.
With very little else within their power to achieve, do Scottish Labour voters want an unstoppable, reinvigorated and bouyant SNP, or a weak and broken lame-duck version that spends the next half-decade being bullied from all sides? There are two months to go until we find out.
The coast guard in Cuba have exchanged fire with what they say was a US infiltration force on 25 February. The shoot-out off the island’s north coast killed four and wounded six aboard the US-linked vessel. Survivors were arrested.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, an avid Cuba hawk, has been cautious in his comments so far. And the Cuban authorities maintain those on the speedboat fired first. Now the Cubans said those aboard planned:
an infiltration with terrorist aims.
A coast guard commander was also wounded. The BBC reported:
The Cuban authorities said they had established that all 10 of those on board the speedboat were Cuban nationals residing in the US.
They also identified an 11th person they said had been arrested and had confessed to being part of the alleged plot.
The Cuban authorities claims those captured had:
prior records involving criminal and violent activity.
The BBC said:
Handguns, assault rifles and improvised explosive devices were recovered from the speedboat, along with other tactical gear, according to the statement.
BBC Verify said it had been unable to pinpoint the ownership of the boat.
Cuba: Bay of Pigs 2.0?
The incident will recall the failed 1961 US invasion attempt in the Bay of Pigs. The US is currently sanctioning Cuba even more aggressively than usual in a bid to unseat the government. The situation is so dire that Mexico is shipping humanitarian aid into the island nation.
President Donald Trump is determined to reshape the hemisphere, by force where necessary. Case in point, the US attack of Venezuela in January, and subsequent kidnapping its president.
Marco Rubio, the hard-right scion of Cuban migrants, is know for his rabid views on the Cuban regime. But he seemed reserved in his public comments. Rubio, who is in the Caribbean for international talks, said he was waiting for verifications:
Rubio was less reserved in the hours after the 3 January bombing and special forces raid on Venezuela.
He told reporters then that Cuba was:
run by incompetent, senile men, and in some cases not seen now, but incompetent nonetheless.
Rubio said:
In some cases, one of the biggest problems Venezuelans have is they have to declare independence from Cuba.
Adding:
They tried to basically colonize it from a security standpoint. So, yeah, look, if I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I’d be concerned at least a little bit.
There is no doubt the US wants Cuba – once part of the US empire – back under its control. And American covert actions are hardly a rarity in Latin America. A similar-sounding operation was mounted against Venezuela in 2020. It also failed. Two former US special operations soldiers were among those jailed. Details are hazy, but the playbook seems eerily familiar.
Featured image via the Canary
A group in Kettering has sent an invoice to North Northants council for £18,000. This is in respect of the removal of over 500 illegally displayed flags on lampposts, which the council itself declined to remove.
As the invoice shows, they’re charging £36 a pop:
As the invoice also shows, they’re probably not 100% serious. Unless those actually are their real bank details.
The war of the flags
For anyone who’s already forgotten, the summer of 2025 saw a new sport break out across the UK. Rival teams of DIY enthusiasts took it in turns to shin up lampposts and either attach or remove flags.
Generally the flaggers claimed they were expressing patriotism. Although their activities often centred on areas close to hotels where asylum seekers lived. And sometimes they defaced the flags with slogans such as “Stop The Boats”.
Those removing the flags occasionally pointed to the alleged illegality of hanging them on street furniture. Some felt they made the area look shabby, often being hung with no regard for formality or aesthetic impact. One council had a bit of a dilemma over whether to prioritise the flags or Christmas decorations.
Jamie Driscoll made the point in the Canary that flags, in themselves, are largely a tool of tribalism. This can be a relatively harmless phenomenon. But in the case of the flag wars it became damagingly divisive.
The Kettering Flagdowners say:
Flags for Kettering are hiding their nasty and divisive right wing agenda behind a cynical veneer of ‘patriotism’.
They add that many other local authorities across the country have been routinely removing such items. And in some cases those responsible for putting them up have themselves received invoices for the cost of removal.
The Flagdowners call upon North Northants council to take down all illegally displayed flags on street lights and to invoice Flags for Kettering (who have illegally been putting them up) for the costs of removal.
Featured image via the Canary
Pentagon-funded think tank RAND says ‘seeming victory’ could become a ‘decisive defeat’ in Gaza when global ‘public opinion’ finally catches up to Israel.
Of course, the military think tank never actually calls what is happening in Gaza a genocide, or that Israel is committing war crime after war crime. The concern it has is with the bad PR Israel’s “kinetic operations” are generating and their “strategic” impact on Israel.
Kinetic warfare is defined as the deliberate use of — or credible threat to use — physical violence and/or physically disruptive actions to undermine security, damage confidence in democratic governance, and/or destabilise democratic society.
RAND, which works directly for the U.S. Army, Air Force, and Department of Homeland Security, in its commentary seemingly condemns Israel’s lack of engagement with counterinsurgency models that the US used in the Malayan Emergency, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. It says:
Unlike their U.S. counterparts, the Israeli security establishment never embraced the population-centric counterinsurgency model. Indeed, some Israeli analysts were openly disdainful of it, partly because they believed that trying to win hearts and minds among the Palestinian population was impossible.
Oct. 7 only reinforced this long-standing belief. Polls taken a couple months after the terrorist attack showed that more than seven in 10 Palestinians surveyed supported the Hamas attack. And so Israel tried a different, far more kinetic, method in Gaza.
In RAND’s words, could the IDF have “stemmed some of the loss of international support” by embracing the “‘hearts and minds’ side of counterinsurgency”
Here is what RAND never says: maybe Palestinians don’t want their “hearts and minds” won by a settler colony. People will always oppose colonialism. Colonialism cannot be wished away with military jargon like “mow the lawn” or managed with counterinsurgency manuals. People want their freedom. Full stop.
Before October 2023, Israel Called It ‘Mowing the Lawn’
“Mowing the Lawn” or “Mowing the Grass” emerged in Israeli political culture around the turn of the century, according to a study, as the military-political strategy defined as regularly targeting Palestinian leadership, facilities, and infrastructure to control their growth like a lawnmower controls grass growth.
Even the New York Times (more aptly, the New York Crimes) pointed out in 2014 that “critics say the use of such terminology is dehumanizing to Palestinians and tends to minimize the toll on civilians as well as militants,” as Israeli officials were open about their aims with such tactics.
Yoav Galant said in a radio interview in 2014:
This sort of maintenance needs to be carried out from time to time, perhaps even more often
In RAND’s analysis, October 7 proved that “mowing the grass” never worked as Hamas couldn’t be “deterred, nor contained, nor appeased.” Hence, came Israel’s carpet bombing and bulldozers.
Not featured in RAND’s analysis: the barbarity, illegality, and utter lack of morality baked into the “mowing the grass” approach from the start. RAND is worried about whether the strategy worked or not.
Normalising Counterinsurgency
Counterinsurgency theory, or COIN in Pentagon-speak, is the military doctrine of fighting insurgency by winning over the population with ” a series of economic and political inducements.”
It assumes the problem is insurgency against the occupation, not the occupation. Further, it assumes that this problem can be solved by “economic and political inducements,” i.e., corruption, bribery, and propaganda.
Of course, the USA has a rich history of COIN. It has practiced this theory against Americans themselves, too.
J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI called it COINTELPRO. In 1967, the FBI quietly unleashed the covert surveillance operation targeting “subversive” civil rights groups and Black leaders. The objective, according to an FBI memo: to “expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralise” the Black freedom movement.
The UK has its own practitioners. Morgan McSweeney, until recently a key figure in Keir Starmer’s inner circle, learned the playbook well.
As Paul Holden’s The Fraud, serialised by the Canary, reveals, McSweeney used Labour Together funding to infiltrate Corbyn-supporting Facebook groups, trawling for posts to weaponise. He then fed the most damaging examples to friendly journalists at the Sunday Times.
Morgan McSweeney also told his fellow saboteurs, “kill the Canary before the Canary kills us“.
This is the awful truth about RAND’s commentary: it normalises colonialism in sterile military jargon, reducing questions of life, death, and freedom to matters of tactical efficiency. It treats Palestinians as “the population” to be managed, not a people demanding liberation.
Featured image via Aljazeera
If this winter has felt particularly miserable and like an utter slog, it’s because we have been missing out on some crucial ‘apricity’; that feeling of the warmth of the winter sun beating down on us.
It makes sense, really. While we may be used to waking up and coming home in the dark during the colder months, we are often lifted by some bright, sunny days (even if it is freezing cold). But given that it hasn’t stopped raining for months, our days have been largely dark and dull.
Even for summer haters like myself, a lack of bright sunny days can certainly take its toll on wellbeing.
We need winter sun to keep us elevated
During winter in the UK, we are often deprived of sunlight. So much so that vitamin D supplements are recommended to all UK residents between April and October by the government because, of course, the body creates vitamin D from direct sunlight on the skin when outdoors.
Action Mental Health explains that when sunlight is in short supply during winter, “many experience a dip in vitamin D which leads them to feel sluggish, decreases mood and causes disruptions to their normal sleep schedule”.
As a result, it recommends that people find pockets of sunlight whenever possible, and step outside to take it in when the sun does show its face in winter.
What do we do when there is no sun?
Well… get your wellies on. Karen Clarke, of Natural Resources Wales, spoke to the BBC about embracing walking, even on damp days, and said: “You’ve got the sound, the sensation of [rain] hitting your face, it’s very relaxing…
“It’s the social aspect as well. If you’re out in your local community, your local green spaces or maybe a bit further afield, you get those social benefits of seeing other people, having a chat with them, saying hello.”
Well, it’s not like we don’t have raincoats…
Help and support:
- Mind, open Monday to Friday, 9am-6pm on 0300 123 3393.
- Samaritans offers a listening service which is open 24 hours a day, on 116 123 (UK and ROI – this number is FREE to call and will not appear on your phone bill).
- CALM (the Campaign Against Living Miserably) offer a helpline open 5pm-midnight, 365 days a year, on 0800 58 58 58, and a webchat service.
- The Mix is a free support service for people under 25. Call 0808 808 4994 or email help@themix.org.uk
- Rethink Mental Illness offers practical help through its advice line which can be reached on 0808 801 0525 (Monday to Friday 10am-4pm). More info can be found on rethink.org.
Ukraine has opened its first drone factory in the UK. The facility, near a US military base in Suffolk, will mass produce unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for the war with Russia. Arm firm Ukrspecsystems will fulfill the contract.
Ukrspecsystems’ UK director Rory Chamberlain told the BBC:
The war has changed but this keeps soldiers safe and it keeps the nation fighting.
There is your chessboard and another piece has been added – another player has been added to the board that can do different things and that’s drones in modern warfare.
It’s changed how they have to defend themselves and it’s changed how they attack as well.
UK’s Minister for Defence Readiness Luke Pollard attended the opening. He told those assembled:
We’ve been supporting Ukraine with training of military personnel for quite a few years now, but for Ukraine to stay in the fight having more assured and resilient industrial production is essential.
That’s what this factory provides, so it is a really important step in the UK-Ukraine partnership, making sure we can keep Ukraine in the fight for longer as we get towards what I hope will be peace.
The UK is also building an arms manufacturing hub in Ukraine.
Ukraine arms base
The British government has said that a three-year fully funded deal has been struck between Ukraine and the UK.
Defence secretary John Healey said on 16 January:
An Armed Forces is only as strong as the industry that stands behind them.
Healy said the new deal ensured even small UK arms firms could get involved. This was all framed as “supporting Ukraine” “and securing peace”:
This new centre will supercharge that effort and ensure British companies, no matter how small, can support Ukraine in the fight today and help secure the peace we hope to see tomorrow.
The National Armaments Director Group will manage the centre. The current director is Rupert Pearce, appointed in October 2025.
The BBC said the new drone factory in Suffolk:
It is also close to Elmsett Airfield, near Ipswich, which will be used to train drone pilots and test out the machines before they are deployed to soldiers on the frontline.
The factory will make up to eight types of UAV to send on to Ukraine. Militarisation is accelerating across Europe. President Donald Trump’s demands that European nations stop relying on the US have compounded this. In the clamour to rearm, there is very little space to discuss what a more just and less war-like economy might look like.
Featured image via the Canary
Natalie Alzate is author of the best-selling Offline Humans (DK, October 2025).
We touch our phones 2,617 times a day on average. The endless swiping isn’t random, it’s the same brain loop that makes slot machines addictive. Scientists call it the ventral tegmental area, a dopamine hub that craves novelty.
Put simply: scrolling is the new gambling. And while the house always wins in Vegas, you can beat the odds with a simple 60-minute reset. The better news? You don’t need to move to a cabin or delete every app to feel better. In just one hour, you can reset your brain from doomscrolling to feeling in control of your focus.
As someone who spent a decade online as a creator, I’ve felt both the perks and pull of social media. Millennials were the first to grow up with phones and the last to remember life without them, which makes our attention feel especially precious. At some point I had to wonder: was I numbing myself with technology? I kept thinking, this cannot be good for my brain.
Eventually, my body made the point for me. It was shouting: stop scrolling. drink water. blink. move. So I ran an experiment – 24 hours offline.
The good news? You don’t need a full day to feel different. Start smaller. Here are a handful of quick resets you can plug into your evenings, then I’ll show you how to habit stack them into one hour that works every time.
Three Offline Resets To Try Today
Logging off often leaves us asking, now what? A dopamine menu solves that. It’s a pre-made list of offline things you genuinely enjoy, easy for moments you’d normally scroll. Spend 20 minutes drafting yours. Here are a few of mine:
- Solo karaoke
- Bath with substack read and tea
- Crisp early-morning workouts
- Late night baking just for fun
- Cozy TV in pyjamas with permission to rest
Having options at hand makes logging off feel less like deprivation and more like choice.
Try A Seasonal Curriculum
Brainrot thrives on passive scrolling…consuming without creating. Self-education flips that script. When you give your brain something to chew on, you trade endless novelty for focused curiosity. That’s why learning, on your own terms, can be an antidote to brainrot.
Each season, pick one theme to explore: a craft, a recipe, a topic that sparks you. I keep a commonplace book and jot down ideas as they pop up. This autumn my list looks like:
- how to make friends in your 30’s
- how to speak more eloquently
- how to actually stay still and pray.
The key is excitement. When learning isn’t forced on you, it feels like play, and that’s what makes it stick.
Clock Off Your Online 9-5
Most of us treat social media like an always-on shift. The notifications never end, the feed is bottomless, and before you know it you’ve worked a second job…for free.
What if you clocked out at 5pm, the way you would from a real office? Treating the internet like a job puts a clear boundary in place. Suddenly those evening hours belong to you again. You’ll notice how much you can get done, calling a friend, actually trying one of those restaurants you saved on instagram, or pulling out that half-finished project. Even boredom becomes productive when it has space to breathe.
Quick try: Scroll through your “saved” folder – look at all those cafes, recipes, day trips you never made time for, and make a real-life bucket list. Close your eyes, point to one, and make it happen tonight. (In my book, I break down how to turn these lists into seasonal challenges you’ll actually enjoy)
The One-Hour Log-Off Plan
We’ve covered quick resets but what if you stacked them into a single routine? Think of it as a mini digital detox, no cabin in the woods required. Here’s how to spend one hour offline and actually feel it.
0-10 minutes: make your phone hard to reach
Put it on charge in another room or in its “bed” as I like to say. Yes, my phone has a bedtime (10 pm sharp). Switch on Do Not Disturb and place it face down. If you need peace of mind, tell one person you’re offline for the next 60.
10-25 minutes: reset your space and body
Tidy one small zone: a desk, that chaotic bathroom sink, bedside table or even a junk drawer. Drink water, put the kettle on, crack a window. If you can, steep outside to a nearby park, a library, or cafe, what sociologists call a third space, a place beyond home or work that naturally slows you down.
25-45 minutes: pick an anchor ritual
Choose a single offline activity and sink into it.
- One sentence journal: one line about today, no pressure.
- Movement: stretch or a short walk.
- Craft or soak: bake something simple, run a bath, or do a puzzle.
45-60 minutes: prep tomorrow
Note three priorities for tomorrow, not ten. Lay out one thing you’ll need whether it’s a gym kit, a notebook, or a lunch). Do a quick 15-minute room reset so in the future you wake up to calm, not chaos
Many of us feel a little disembodied after years of living in our heads and on our phones. But one hour, repeated, can bring you back into your body and back to other people.
On BBC, Victoria Derbyshire interviewed a university graduate who shared his experience with lofty student finance repayments. Pointing out how much he has paid in ‘a few years’ of working, Derbyshire asked if comfort is found in the knowledge that the public fleecing ends after 30 years.
The privileged elder misses the point that 30 years of accumulating interest will drive repayments far beyond the original loan, generating a significant profit for the state.
This incident exposes how the establishment is perfectly willing to squeeze more money out of young people to boost public coffers, all while claiming that there are ‘too many options’ available to prospective students. At the same time, they refuse to consider measures like a wealth tax, arguing that the richest would simply leave.
When quality education leads to better jobs, stronger economic growth, and ultimately higher tax revenues, the double standard becomes clear. The state targets those trapped within the system for profit, while avoiding any serious effort to make the rich and powerful contribute more.
A country that does this to its smart, ambitious young people deserves to fail. It’s no deeper than that.
The grim truth is large parts of the political and media class have hated young people for a long time now. Generation PAYE-pig.
— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) February 25, 2026
Captive students: Low-hanging fruit
Recently on Good Morning Britain, Martin Lewis successfully challenged Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch on her attempt to revise student loan repayment Plan 2 as a solution to the student debt crisis. The money-saving expert rightfully pointed out it would be easing things slightly for one group, whilst ignoring all others. This prompted widespread debate with graduates across the country supporting Lewis’ calls to wipe student debt that is creating a deadweight effect on workers in the economy.
A highly lucrative deadweight that was clearly pointed out by Max in the interview, which went as follows:
Victoria Derbyshire: Let me ask you then, Max, how much did you borrow in total?
Max: So, I borrowed £84,000 in total, and that’s about half tuition fee, and the rest maintenance loans that you need to live on and pay your rent whilst you’re there and so on.
Derbyshire: And how much have you paid back so far?
Max: I’ve paid back about £8,000 over the past few years that I’ve been working.
Derbyshire: And how much do you owe now?
Max: £110,000.
Derbyshire: Oh, my God.
Max: Yeah.
Derbyshire: What does that feel like?
Max: Well, I mean, it feels ridiculous because I know I’m never going to be able to pay that back. So for me, this is no longer a student loan. It’s a lifelong graduate tax.
Derbyshire: Right. Do you take any comfort in the fact that after 30 years, if you haven’t paid it back, it’s wiped out?
Max: Well, I feel like that’s a bit of a misconception because the fact that people end up not clearing their debt within 30 years actually means they end up paying for longer because the interest rates are so high and they’re often going to end up paying more than they actually borrowed. So you’re trapped.
Derbyshire: Right. That’s how it feels.
Max: Yeah.
Derbyshire appears to ignore the fact that if Max continues at his current repayment rate, without any future pay rises increasing his contributions, his repayment would be at least £88k. This shows he will still repay the full cost of his original loans and then some over 30 years. Therefore, the expiration date of this unavoidable “student tax” offers no comfort when it only signals the conclusion of exploitative interest charges.
After all, education is an investment in the future of the economy. Seeing it as a source of profit instead is counterproductive and just works to undervalue graduates.
Our youth are not the ‘magic money tree’
Since Lewis’ principled and informed intervention, others with specialised insight into university education have spoken out. Historian and former university head Sir Anthony Seldon even argued that Lewis should take on a four-week role to fix the mess former Labour and Conservative governments created.
We wrote:
Contrary to the Conservatives’ policy being dangled like a carrot to voters, historian Anthony Seldon has called for all student debt to be wiped. He went further, urging the government to accept that it must stop treating students as a source of profit. Instead, Seldon argued that they already contribute to the economy through the skills and expertise they develop at university.
Furthermore, Seldon emphasised that higher education is about far more than achieving high grades or obtaining a certificate. After all, it is a formative experience where young people develop vital life and social skills. Also, it’s essential for improving critical analysis skills with young people engaging in progressive, informed debate.
The neoliberal state will likely continue to insist there is ‘no magic money tree’ to address the scale of underfunding across society. Yet at the same time, the wealth of the richest has soared at record-breaking rates. Therefore, those who once benefited from free education now resist asking the wealthiest to contribute their fair share in taxes. Instead, they continue to target the easy pickings — students striving for opportunity and a better life.
The government have stated they will ‘look at ways to make it fairer’. Easy. Deploy wealth taxes to ease the burdens facing graduates and students across the country.
Featured image via Green Country
On Wednesday, one fan asked the Oasis frontman whether he’d be putting in an appearance at the Brits this weekend, to which he responded: “I’m not.”
Candid as ever, the singer remarked: “I can’t be around those ITV cunts.”
In more X posts, Liam claimed that he was “just not feeling this [Rock And Roll] hall of fame thing”, but conceded he would attend the ceremony all the same, mainly to “collect it”, “tell the panel of judges how lovely they all look”, “thank all the fans that voted for us” and then “wreck the gaff”.
In 2010, he even got on the wrong side of Peter Kay, when he accepted the award for Best British Album Of The Last 30 Years, completely snubbed his brother in his speech, then tossed his award into the crowd.
“What a knobhead,” the comedian – who was hosting the Brits that year – remarked.
Oasis certainly saw a chart resurgence in 2025 thanks to their much-hyped reunion, but Noel’s award has proved to be a controversial one given that he didn’t actually release any new music at any point in the last year.
Instagram has unveiled a new feature which will alert parents if their teenager repeatedly tries to search for terms related to suicide or self-harm.
The feature is being rolled out in the coming weeks and will provide caregivers with information to help support their teen and talk to them about it.
Currently, if someone tries to search for suicide and self-harm content on Instagram, the social media platform’s policy is to block these searches and direct them to resources and helplines that can offer support.
How will the new alert work?
Now, in addition to the blocked content feature, if someone using a Teen Account repeatedly tries to search for terms related to suicide or self-harm within a short period of time, their parent will receive a notification.
The alerts will be sent via email, text, or WhatsApp – depending on the contact information available – as well as through an in-app notification.
Tapping on the notification will open a full-screen message explaining that their teen has repeatedly tried to search Instagram for terms associated with suicide or self-harm within a short period of time.
Parents will also have the option to view expert resources designed to help them approach potentially sensitive conversations with their child.
Attempted searches that would prompt the alert include phrases promoting suicide or self-harm, phrases that suggest a teen wants to harm themselves, and the actual terms ‘suicide’ or ‘self-harm’.
These alerts will roll out to parents who use Instagram’s parental supervision tools in the US, UK, Australia, and Canada next week, and will become available in other regions later this year.
Why is it needed?
The rollout comes one week before the release of Channel 4 documentary Molly Vs The Machines, which revisits the death of 14-year-old Molly Russell, who took her own life in 2017 after months of seeing content relating to self-harm and suicide online.
The Standard notes that Molly had saved, liked and shared 16,300 pieces of content on Instagram in the six months leading to her death – of these, 2,100 were about self-harm, depression and suicide. She had also searched for similar content on Pinterest.
Both social media platforms now block this type of content from searches. In cases where content encourages suicide, self-injury or eating disorders, it is removed.
In 2023, The Online Safety Act came into force with a new set of laws to protect children and adults online. As part of the act, social media companies and search services have a duty to protect users – especially young people.
Platforms have to prevent children from accessing harmful and age-inappropriate content, and provide parents and children with clear and accessible ways to report problems when they do arise.
Companies which don’t meet these requirements can be fined up to £18 million or 10% of their qualifying worldwide revenue (whichever is greater).
Vicki Shotbolt, CEO of Parent Zone, said of the latest announcement: “It’s vital that parents have the information they need to support their teens.
“This is a really important step that should help give parents greater peace of mind – if their teen is actively trying to look for this type of harmful content on Instagram, they’ll know about it.”
Meta, which owns Instagram, said it is now working on building similar parental notifications for teens’ conversations with AI.
Help and support:
- Mind, open Monday to Friday, 9am-6pm on 0300 123 3393.
- Samaritans offers a listening service which is open 24 hours a day, on 116 123 (UK and ROI – this number is FREE to call and will not appear on your phone bill).
- CALM (the Campaign Against Living Miserably) offer a helpline open 5pm-midnight, 365 days a year, on 0800 58 58 58, and a webchat service.
- The Mix is a free support service for people under 25. Call 0808 808 4994 or email help@themix.org.uk
- Rethink Mental Illness offers practical help through its advice line which can be reached on 0808 801 0525 (Monday to Friday 10am-4pm). More info can be found on rethink.org.
Politics
Oliver Dean: Never mind the Davey stunts, it’s Daisy’s stunt that makes the Lib Dems an unserious party
Oliver Dean is the digital editor of Mace Magazine and a political commentator with Young Voices. He studies History and Politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
Recently the Liberal Democrat economic spokesperson, Daisy Cooper, set out her party’s economic framework.
She did so at a press conference hosted by UK Finance, and the announcement marked the first major policy proposal the party has put forward since the 2024 election. But, whilst many Liberal Democrats were likely overjoyed by their party’s announcement, Cooper’s words left many scratching their heads and wondering how anyone could take her party seriously.
Perhaps the most peculiar announcement Cooper put forth was her idea to scrap the Treasury and, in its place, create a new Department for Growth. Her defence of such a radical idea came from the fact that, “in other countries” the bodies that cover “fiscal policy, economic policy and controlling government spending” are “split up.”
It may sound like a good idea on paper. After all, if other countries are doing it, why should Britain not join them?
But joking aside, such an idea is a prime example of a sweet nothing.
The evidence for this is overwhelming. For one, they would move this new Department to Birmingham. The reasoning behind this move is to reduce the inequality gap between London and the rest of the country. However, what no one seems to have told the Liberal Democrats is that simply moving a government building to a different city is not a means to produce economic growth. It is not as though the Treasury is some major economic force that drives up the country’s GDP. Moving this supposed ‘Department for Growth’ outside of London will not solve the countries’ economic issues in the way Cooper expects it to.
What is most telling, however, was the Party’s insistence that they “do not anticipate any cuts” to come with these new policies. True, the Liberal Democrat ethos appears to be spend, spend and spend some more and just hope that something works. At current rates, for instance, the government is expecting the welfare bill to rise by £20 billion more per year until the end of the Parliament. How, then, can the Liberal Democrats sit there with a straight face and not consider cutting any level of public spending? Total public spending is ballooning out of proportion, and yet Daisy Cooper and her allies appear to be blind to this economic reality. The truth is that if they are not to cut spending, they are left with just two options.
Either they would be forced to increase borrowing. Or, if they wished to take the other route, they would need to raise taxes. Both of these options would hinder the opportunities of future generations. The crux of the matter is that the Liberal Democrats are in a position to say such niceties – that cuts are not necessary, that they will mend the country’s woes – because they are, thankfully, never going to be near a position of power.
They can promise voters the world, and never be forced to deliver. They push policies in an attempt to grab headlines, and whilst it may work for a day or two, the votes they bleed as a result will far outweigh any positive media reception they may receive.
Indeed, such fiscally irresponsible nonsense comes at a time when their party leader is viewed by many as a joke. If he is not falling off a kayak, or partaking in some type of cringe-inducing photo opportunity, he is likely running his party’s credibility into the ground.
Daisy Cooper’s announcement has thus reinforced what many have known for a long time. That the Liberal Democrats are not a serious contender for government, and should not be allowed anywhere near the reins of power. The idea is radical, and unrealistic, but that is exactly what the Liberal Democrats can offer voters. They will never be held accountable for their undeliverable promises, and so do not care as to whether their plans are possible or not.
Perhaps we should all be thanking Daisy Cooper, for shining a light on the real Liberal Democrats.
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