Finally, Indian PM Narendra Modi’s “blind devotion” to Israel is being questioned. However, Israel propagandists like Eylon Levy, The Times of Israel, and Jewish Insider are pushing deeper links to Israel.

In India, Jairam Ramesh, Congress Party’s spokesperson, welcomed the unrestricted reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, which would bring relief to India. But he also cautioned that deeper economic challenges remain unresolved.

And, in a demonstration of staunch opposition, the Congress Party have also said that Modi should reconsider his “blind devotion and unconditional support” for Israel. And the party have also accused Modi of not representing India’s national interests, and demanded a more balanced approach.

Pakistan’s role as a mediator is being seen in India as a “monumental failure” of Modi’s foreign policy, for a country that pioneered the non-aligned movement.

The Wire reported:

India lost its moral guardrails; its outrageous pro-America/Israel stand on UN resolutions would have given Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru sleepless nights even in the tranquil heavens. India thought it would earn brownie points for being part of Trump’s tutored school choir. Trump instead saw India as an easy pushover. Enter Pakistan. The rest is history.

Zionist pitch for deeper India-Israel ties

Meanwhile, Eylon Levy, a former spokesperson for Israel, posted on X that India should deepen its military and economic ties with Israel and abandon its “unsustainable” neutrality in the face of the Iran deal, which he called a “disaster for India.”

It is no accident that India’s right-wing are fervent supporters of Israel, united as they are by Islamophobia. The fact the Iran deal elevates Pakistan also threatens the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) trade corridor, and endangers Indian workers in the Gulf.

The Times of Israel and Jewish Insider are both supporting what they call “India, Israel, and the UAE: The New Power Triangle in the Middle East.”

Jewish Insider said that “alignments” between Israel, the UAE, and India had created new opportunities for cooperation, citing the May defence pact between India and the UAE.

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A post shared by Jewish Insider (@jewishinsider)

The Times of Israel frames India as a country that engages with Iran through forums like BRICS while also expanding defense and economic cooperation with Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv. It discusses IMEC as an opportunity facing challenges amid regional tensions.

Indian seafarers killed by the USA

The death of Indian seafarers in US attacks on commercial ships navigating through the Strait of Hormuz has sparked outrage across India’s political spectrum, with all opposition parties condemning the “dastardly attack” and accusing the US of acting like a “gangster trying to impose its hegemony over the entire world.”

The five left parties – Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India Marxist-Leninist (Liberation), All India Forward Bloc, Revolutionary Socialist Party – have issued the following joint statement: pic.twitter.com/QHvUqMl73C

— CPI (M) (@cpimspeak) June 15, 2026

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In a joint statement, CPI(M), CPI, CPI (ML), and others demanded that the Modi government ensure proper compensation to the families of the slain seafarers and pursue all diplomatic means to punish those responsible, while calling on the people of India to protest against US aggression.

They call Modi’s government “junior partner” to the US, failing in its duty to protect Indian citizens, and reneging on India’s longstanding tradition of an independent foreign policy.

Congress’s Rahul Gandhi called Modi an “obedient servant” and “compromised” by foreign powers.

Compromised PM के राज में एक भारतीय होने का मतलब दुर्गति है।

विदेशी ताकत हमारे नागरिकों को मारती है। हमारी सरकार एक आज्ञाकारी नौकर की तरह चुप-चाप आदेश मान लेती है – और हमारे नागरिक सड़ने के लिए छोड़ दिए जाते हैं।

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इस भारतीय को घर लाइए। अभी। https://t.co/WE7Y69wHZt

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) June 14, 2026

The Guardian also reported that the “seemingly blase” response from the US government to the killing of the sailors has been the cause of great consternation in India.

Modi and Trump are expected to meet during the current G-7 summit in France. Will US/Israel axis propagandists have won or not – time will tell.

Featured image via the Canary

By The Canary

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The number of disabled children who are kicked off benefits when they are reassessed as an adult has doubled in two years.

Under the Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) rules, children get disability living allowance (DLA) until they are 16. Instead of just automatically moving on to Personal Independence Payment (PIP), they then have to reapply.

It should be a straightforward process, but because PIP is a needlessly cruel system, many find it harder to qualify for.

Disabled kids suddenly not disabled at 16

Information service, Benefits and Work, examined the statistics on moving from Child DLA to PIP on DWP StatXplore. Its team found that between 2023 and 2025, the rate of failure doubled.

From August to October 2023, 11% of claimants who had received DLA failed the assessment to get PIP. But for the same quarter in 2025, the failure rate had jumped to 23%.

Those are the most recent stats available, so the situation could be much worse by now.

Not only that, but success rates where the claimant gets more money with PIP than they did from DLA have also fallen.

Between August and October 2023, 69% of claimants saw an increase in their award from moving to PIP. But in the same quarter in 2025, this increase rate was 54%.

So, despite there being no changes to the PIP assessment yet, it’s clearly already a ridiculous system to qualify for, if there’s such a discrepancy between children getting DLA and over-16s getting PIP. A young person’s disabilities don’t magically disappear on their 16th birthday.

Higher poverty rates

It’s especially worrying to see that so many disabled young people are left without support once they turn 16, when you consider how many disabled children live in poverty.

The children’s charity Variety found that 21,000 disabled children live in temporary accommodation. This equates to one out of every eight children facing homelessness.

It’s also important to consider that temporary accommodation often cannot meet the needs of disabled people.

Temporary accommodation is supposed to be a short-term fix, but Variety found that, on average, disabled children spend six to 10 months in temporary housing. Some cases exceeded six years.

Whilst there have been no policy changes since 2023, there has been a sustained campaign by the Tories and then Labour to demonise benefits claimants.

These latest statistics evidence another way that the DWP is trying to make life harder for people with disabilities.

Featured image via cottonbro studio

By Rachel Charlton-Dailey

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Two of Reform’s Wigan councillors have been pictured with a sign that reads “I would rather vote for Jimmy Saville than Labour”. The problem with that statement is it implies the people standing by it would vote for Jimmy Saville. The problem with that is the fact that Saville was a notorious paedophile:

Reform UK’s #Makerfield campaign team for @RobKenyonReform, including 2 Wigan councillors Gemma Painter and Lilian Rogers.

Photo ops with Jimmy Saville jokes.

Sick.@reformparty_uk and Kenyon, anything to say?

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Share this, make sure everyone in Makerfield sees it. pic.twitter.com/GHT3TFWCHj

— Reform Party UK Exposed (@reformexposed) June 15, 2026

Reform ignore crimes of Jimmy Saville

Here at the Canary, we’ve been as critical of Starmer as anyone. Arguably, we’ve been more critical, because we’ve been pointing out his flaws and deceptions since before he became Labour leader.

As bad as Starmer is, he’s clearly not worse than Jimmy f*cking Saville. You could argue that Starmer’s position as PM gives him a greater ability to cause damage, but that argument falls down when you’re saying you’d vote for Saville to replace him.

While Saville has once again become something of a joke, this man was a serious offender. 450 people accused him of sexual abuse. 82% of the victims were female; 80% of them were children. Saville used his position as a children’s entertainer to get away with this, as well as his connections within the media and charity sectors. He was a plague on this country, and no one should forget that.

Reform politicians have tried to paint themselves as the party which will tackle ‘grooming gangs’. Farage and his underlings told us the other parties don’t take the issue seriously, and yet here they are laughing about the most prolific sexual abuser of the past century.

And another pic.twitter.com/r5HNSZlFP9

— Reform Party UK Exposed (@reformexposed) June 15, 2026

“Reform Will Fix It’

This isn’t the only time that Reform has shown an unusual interest in Saville. In March this year, the party decided to borrow the dead paedophile’s ‘Jim’ll Fix It’ catchphrase:

WATCH: Nigel Farage is repeatedly heckled at the launch of Reform UK's London local election campaign pic.twitter.com/QCshvLKvU0

— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) March 28, 2026

Even some of their far-right supporters took issue with this, which is presumably why they’d later drop the catchphrase:

Reform will 'fix it's a bit Jimmy Saville esque if you ask me, but they are putting out the right message. https://t.co/Gz5HozCc3o

— ARAMINTA (@Glasvirgin) March 26, 2026

Reform’s cynicism around abuse doesn’t end there either. As we’ve reported:

• Grooming gang victims demanded an apology from Farage after he spread lies about them.
• Farage said it would be wrong to ban Twitter even though its AI was at the time producing Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM).

There’s also this:

A man is judged by the company he keeps. pic.twitter.com/vOZLwzKTje

— Reform Party UK Exposed (@reformexposed) October 28, 2025

If you’re unfamiliar with Andrew Tate, here’s a video of him explaining the techniques he used to traffic women:

Here he admits in more detail to tricking women, giving them the false impression of love, and using a "bottom bitch" for manipulation for the sole purpose of putting them in front of a camera and making money off of them.

Deception and exploitation. This is human trafficking. pic.twitter.com/XtS6uU2E5g

— Ridvan Aydemir | Apostate Prophet (@ApostateProphet) June 23, 2023

Unsurprising

Given all of the above, it’s not surprising that a Reform supporter would rather vote for Saville than Starmer. If anything, it seems like some people who support Farage just wouldn’t have a problem with Saville full stop.

These are not people who take abuse seriously, and as time goes on, that couldn’t be more obvious.

Featured image via Twitter

By Willem Moore

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Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) director Ben Jamal has demanded an apology and retraction from Israel lobby group Board of Deputies (BOD) for its smears against anti-apartheid protesters. The BOD (like the Met Police) had attacked Jewish activists protesting outside a London synagogue hosting the sale of stolen Palestinian land — a reference to Israel’s illegal settlements — but the BOD brazenly denied the event was selling stolen land.

Marketing stolen land

But it was selling stolen land. This is a fact that even corporate state media has now been forced to acknowledge. This should surprise no one paying attention.

Moreover, Israeli settlers have even been marketing land in southern Lebanon. This is land that Israel doesn’t control yet.

But for the ‘mainstream media’ to admit it, however unwillingly, is conclusive. Prioritising the feelings of Israel’s supporters as usual, the BOD claimed to be “deeply disturbed” at the “wholly unjustified” protests. It also demanded tough action from police against protesters:

Don’t hold your breath

But the BOD has not, at the time of writing, retracted its smears or even deleted its post. It has certainly not apologised for smearing protesters who were entirely in the right. So Jamal has tagged in the BOD directly. This is to ensure it has no excuse for not being aware of the fact its falsehood has been exposed. Additionally, he quoted the BOD’s smear and called for an immediate retraction and apology:

It is now verified that the event was marketing properties in illegal settlements. I presume you will now be retracting this statement, apologising, and condemning the synagogue for hosting the event. https://t.co/VOMnmgRmG9

— Ben Jamal (@BenJamal48) June 15, 2026

Skwawkbox hopes that Mr Jamal is not holding his breath. The BOD found time to welcome the Court of Appeals’ decision to undermine UK human and civil rights by upholding the Starmer regime’s ban on Palestine Action. However, it didn’t find time to address its own dishonesty on the Israel land sale. This is no surprise. The BOD says it exists to promote Israel. Yet politicians and ‘mainstream’ media organisations treat it as though it represents all British Jews. Nevertheless, many of whom oppose Israel and its crimes — rather than Israel.

And many of those politicians and media outlets, along with other Israel lobby groups, have spent the weekend attacking the protesters for ‘targeting Jews’. It’s now beyond honest dispute that the protesters were opposing yet more land-theft by the coloniser ethno-state.

Just don’t hold your breath waiting for Israel’s supporters to acknowledge it.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

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The post How the left turned on the Jews appeared first on spiked.

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The United Nations (UN) has said that over 1000 people have been killed by drones in Sudan in 2026. Both the Sudanese state military and the UAE-backed Rapid Support Forces militia use drones. The three-year old war has displaced millions and killed thousands.

UN human rights chief Volker Turk said:

We are seeing a global shift in how war is waged.

The UN has warned for many years against the development of lethal autonomous weapons. This reality is now upon us.

Adding that:

Relentless drone attacks have caused mass casualties and terrorized civilians.

Turk was speaking at a UN event in Geneva about the rise of drone warfare around the globe. A senior UK minister was also in attendance…

Sudan under attack

The RSF, backed by the UAE, is fighting the Sudanese government, with gold interests and regional influence at stake.

Numerous foreign actors, including the UK, have caused the war to fester through active participation and/or outright passivity. Israel, too, is a player in the war.

The war in Sudan is theoretically between the Arab-majority RSF and the Sudanese government. But foreign states pursuing their own interests are backing the combatants. Turkey, Egypt and many more countries are pursuing their own interests in Sudan too.

The RSF has killed Sudanese civilians in vast numbers. Some estimates say 150,000 people have died and more than 10 million civilians have been displaced by fighting.

Massive increase in drone use

The UN reported:

The US-based Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) observed an 81% increase in drone attacks and a 600% increase in drone-related deaths in the war-torn east African country between 2024 and 2025.

And at the Geneva summit, Turk warned:

The prospect of billion-dollar, AI-enabled weapons [being] brought down by billion-dollar, AI-enabled defensive shields exposes the horror, emptiness, and futility of war.

Autonomous weapons cannot become a license for atrocity crimes.

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UK Africa minister Jenny Chapman was also in attendance. Displaying more neck than a herd of giraffes given the UK’s role in the war, Chapman told the audience:

Sudan’s warring parties have increased their brutality from the skies, using drones supplied by their backers to target civilians and aid workers.

This is deplorable and must stop.

Adding that organisations must:

document abuses and preserve evidence – essential steps to breaking the cycle of impunity.

UK role in slaughter is known

As the Canary has reported repeatedly:

British military components have shown up on the battlefield in RSF hands. The UK is a major arms supplier to UAE.

Even more damningly:

Sources have also claimed the UK downgraded the [humanitarian] situation in Sudan to avoid “pissing off the Emiratis”.

The Canary reported on 11 June that the first war crimes claim had been lodged against RSF in Kenya. Twelve victims backed by a Swiss legal NGO urged Kenya’s chief of prosecution to pursue the case. Associated Press (AP) reported on 9 June:

It is the first attempt to prosecute members of the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, the paramilitary group fighting against the Sudanese military for over three years, outside Sudan.

Adding that:

The group, which has been accused by rights organizations of committing atrocities amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity, has ties with Kenya’s government.

The war in Sudan garners very little attention in the West. Yet the UK’s quiet but key role in a growing list of atrocities is unmistakable. Africa minister Jenny Chapman – and her bosses in No 10 – simply cannot be unaware of this fact.

Which, in turn, suggests that they’re peddling the same old neocolonial falsehoods.

Featured image via the Canary

By Joe Glenton

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Andrea Egan, who took over in January as general secretary of Unison, has said that the Starmer government is ushering far-right Reform UK into power.

The comments come as Unison’s annual conference begins today.

Left-winger Egan ousted Christine McAnea in a vote of Unison members. McAnea had long been accused of prioritising the Labour right’s manoeuvres over the interests and democracy of Unison members.

This week’s conference is Egan’s first in her new role. In an interview with the BBC’s Iain Watson, she said that the union had been a “sleeping giant” that had been “subservient” to Starmer’s Labour for far too long.

Unison has been “handing money over to the Labour Party and getting absolutely nothing in return”, Egan claimed.

She added that she had been “frank” with Labour that it was betraying the people it is meant to be serving.

I have been very frank with the government. When Labour came into power there was a sense of relief. But sadly we’ve been left wanting.

Communities are really struggling. They [Labour] haven’t delivered and my election demonstrated that members were desperate to have their voices heard.

Unison’s Egan says Labour must deliver on promises

The union boss also told Watson that Starmer is on track to “hand the keys to No10 to Reform”.

I have spoken out clearly about the threat Reform brings. It isn’t us that will hand the keys to No10 to Reform —  it’s them, unless they change course. And drastically.

They’ve got to start introducing progressive policies. Investment in infrastructure, pay restoration, better services, insourcing. They need to ensure that they deliver on promises they made when they came into government.

Egan is right but also wrong. If Starmer’s Labour carried anything of what Labour is meant to be, there might be a prospect of the party changing — if only to retain power, if not to actually serve ordinary people. But the only thing Starmer’s zombie party has in common with the Corbyn party that it replaced is the brand.

Starmer’s entire purpose in taking over was to end Labour as any prospect of change for the better.

Instead, his party is owned by and run for elite interests — those of corporate privatisers, the arms industry and the Israel lobby.

Starmer’s personal and policy record in Downing Street and even before that is appalling. So appalling that a reasonable person could very easily conclude that Starmer is actively trying to end Labour as a political force and “hand the keys” to the far right.

Do not underestimate the damage Reform will do

Egan shows every sign of under-estimating the threat Reform poses. She cites Farage’s plans to attack workers and the NHS, but Reform would also wage war on minorities and human rights and launch a fire sale of what little remains in public ownership.

But in that, Farge is barely distinguishable from Starmer, who hardly even bothers to try to window-dress his own racism, authoritarianism and lust for privatisation.

Egan was expelled by Starmer’s cronies in 2022 when she was Unison’s elected president. It was an unambiguous show of Starmer’s contempt for the union movement if it won’t serve his interests.

Nothing has changed — not for the better, at any rate. Yet, Watson says, Egan “insists that she has only ever been a Labour member — and it wasn’t her choice to leave”.

The time to separate from Labour is now

Watson’s article notes that in 2027, Unison members will vote on whether to end the union’s affiliation to Starmer’s party. Unison currently pays more than £1 million a year to Labour. That will leave just two years — at most — before the general election at which Egan expects Labour to roll out the turquoise carpet for Farage to enter No.10.

Starmer’s record and the short time remaining to build up a genuine opponent to the fascist right — whether the fascists are wearing red, blue or turquoise rosettes — means waiting another year is unconscionable.

Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, even if he succeeds in this week’s Makerfield by-election and in deposing Starmer, is signalling that he would only put a personality on most of the same awful policies.

Unison, like the entire union movement, needs to disaffiliate now and put its money and resources behind a left party with a genuine chance to stop them. After the self-inflicted implosion of Your Party, that means the Greens. There’s no time for dithering.

Featured image via Unison

By Skwawkbox

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A prestigious private school full of rich kids is facing backlash after its huntsman admitted to an illegal wildlife murder. Done footage captured the controversial hunt as Stowe Beagles were seen tracking and ripping apart a European Brown Hare. It then shows members of the elite Buckinghamshire boarding school congratulating each other on the kill.

We, the public, only have until 18 June to back a total ban on the trail hunting — that’s when the government consultation closes. It is our last chance to close this legal loophole for good and stop these senseless killings.

Blood sports for posh schoolboys

The damning evidence led to a criminal conviction at Northampton Magistrates’ Court on 4 June 2026. Philip Kennedy, huntsman of the Stowe Beagles, pled guilty to hunting a wild mammal with dogs at Crockwell Farm in Northamptonshire.

Kennedy was fined a pathetic £258 and ordered to pay a £103 victim surcharge and £585 in costs. That’s nothing considering the UK Hunting Act 2004 banned hare hunting with hounds over 20 years ago.

Yet the Stowe Beagles still operates as an OFFICIAL extracurricular activity in the school’s games department. Footage shows the pack chasing a hare into a fence line before ripping the poor creature apart. Three members then arrive at the murder scene, shaking hands in celebration. Some members are believed to be schoolboys according to animal rights activists.

So what the hell is going on? Are we teaching rich kids that breaking the law is something to applaud? One rule for the rich, and another for the rest of us it seems.

Ilegal hunt activities are being normalised

Stowe School is not the only educational institution that maintains active hunts. Eton College and Radley College both have kennels for their own packs of hounds. Ampleforth and Marlborough Colleges also maintain strong links with local hunt groups.

Wealthy children assist huntsmen as whippers-in and occupy leadership roles on hunt committees. A Horse & Hound article notes that these school hunt packs are training the next generation of foxhound masters.

For generations, ‘young gentlemen’ (and now some ladies) have followed the well-worn path of masterships from school beagles to college beagles before taking a pack of foxhounds.

The Stowe and Royal Agricultural College Beagles have produced the greatest number of masters and huntsmen of foxhounds over the past 50 years

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Kennedy has worked at the Buckinghamshire boarding school since 2003, but his profile has been scrubbed from their website. Kennedy supervised the supposed transition from hunting live animals to legal trail hunting. What the recent conviction proves is that Stowe School has been running illegal hunts. This pisses all over existing legislation.

School hunts send the message that the wealthy are above the law, because their education is paid for in ridiculous sums of cash. And what’s a £1,000 in fines to people paying £50k in school fees yearly… pocket change. If issued to one of us, a fine like that would mean not eating for a month.

Activists slam the school over safeguarding

Following the conviction, Hunt Saboteurs Association (HSA) chair Simon Russell sent an open letter to Stowe School head Anthony Wallersteiner. His letter states that clear video evidence is proof of a premeditated act in front of schoolboys. Russell wrote that the celebratory handshakes shared between the murderers suggest illegal hare hunting is routine at Stowe.

Russell warns the school of corporate liability under Section 10 of the Hunting Act 2004. This means that school officers face prosecution if illegal hunts occur with their consent or connivance. Russell framed the incident as a severe safeguarding failure that desensitises kids to suffering and murder.

The letter cites the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. This protects kids from violence inflicted on animals. But the Stowe Beagles are always travelling to remote locations. They have previously visited the notorious Coniston Hounds, a pack that has been caught abusing foxes. Exposing these rich kids to deliberate animal abuse is a massive safeguarding risk… so why is the school silent on Kennedy’s conviction? Normalising suffering and death to children just means they will grow up to become less empathetic adults.

The HSA is demanding that school governors disband the hunt immediately and face an inspection. Will these elitist educational institutions finally act? Or will they continue to show kids that killing cute fluffy creatures and breaking the law is a privilege the ruling class is entitled to?

Featured images via the Hunt Saboteurs Association

By Antifabot

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Charities and campaigners have warned that Keir Starmer’s plan to ban under-16s from social media will isolate disabled and LGBTQ+ children.

This week, Labour prime minister announced new legislation to stop children from accessing apps like Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok, X and YouTube. The ban will take effect in Spring 2027 and restrict livestreams and ‘stranger communication’ for children, including on gaming sites.

The ban won’t help any kids

There are already concerns that, without regulating the tech companies, this will do very little to protect children from the dangers of the internet and punish them instead. The Canary’s Maddison Wheeldon argues that:

There is every chance this amounts to little more than virtue-signalling: a tokenistic gesture to “protect children” while changing sweet naff all about the very systems causing great harm in the first place.

Girl’s rights charity Plan International UK has also warned that the ban won’t keep girls safe. This is because it fails to tackle the underlying causes of misogyny online.

Morgan Griffith-David from Plan International UK told the Canary:

Banning children does nothing to tackle the dangerous misogyny and sexism that has become so rampant across social media.

Harmful gender norms are being constantly reinforced by social media algorithms and addictive features driven by profit, not safety – and blocking access for children lets tech companies off the hook by not forcing them to address these issues.

Social media plan will harm disabled kids

Starmer’s mission to end violence against women and girls has always felt like a rehabilitation tactic. In December, he went on Loose Women to talk about it. This happened to be the same week that the abhorrent treatment of pro-Palestine prisoners on hunger strike came to light.

This now seems like a last-ditch attempt to stop his own party turning against him. But by blanket banning social media instead of making it safer, the prime minister will isolate kids from marginalised communities.

In particular, disabled or LGBTQ+ young people will be affected. Many don’t have an in-person community and have found friends on social media.

For many disabled people who can’t leave the house, social media is where they find their community. Disability charities for young people have spoken out against the ban, stressing that it would take away lifelines.

Julie Davis, CEO of the Royal Society for Blind Children, told BBC News:

We are mindful that this ban risks cutting off vital routes to connection for children who are already too often excluded. We are actively looking at ways to counter the impact this could have.

Others, expressed the need for better safeguards before taking away disabled kids community. Simon Want, Head of Policy and Influencing at the National Deaf Children’s society told BBC News:

We want to see action that keeps children safe from harm while still allowing deaf young people to stay connected, express themselves and access support. This means working closely with families, experts and deaf young people themselves to get the balance right.

As disabled and queer campaigner Charli Clement pointed out, marginalised kids only flock to social media because third spaces in the UK — such as youth groups and libraries — have been ‘decimated’ by successive governments.

Clement said on instagram:

Third spaces in the UK have been decimated to a point that social media is the pseudo third space for most young people. This particularly applies to marginalised young people who are meeting their community and understanding themselves through the digital space.

They continued:

There’s no longer a youth club, there’s no longer a youth centre, there isn’t a place to just go and play basketball with your friends. Joining a group chat or going on snapchat or watching videos with your friends is what is replacing third spaces. If you take away that, where are they supposed to go?

Essentially, Starmer’s internet ban won’t help anyone. Yet, while there are no third spaces and no actual regulation of social media, all it will do is harm marginalised kids.

Featured image via Rendy Novantino / Unsplash

By Rachel Charlton-Dailey

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Only the Green Party has responded to a Makerfield public ownership pledge launched today, explaining which local public services they would take back if elected. Andy Burnham has not clarified his position, despite his critique of privatisation in recent weeks.

Campaign group We Own It asked the six main Makerfield candidates for their positions on public ownership of water, energy and buses, as well as a local BlackRock deal with Greater Manchester Pension Fund to buy up GP surgeries.

Nearly 10,000 emails have been sent to the candidates over the weekend to put pressure on them to reveal their policies. This follows on from a previous letter seeking candidates’ views on support for Palestinian people.

The campaigners point out that in 2025 United Utilities dumped sewage into waterways in Makerfield for over 3,000 hours. The electricity distribution company Electricity North West is rated only 1.9 on Trustpilot and has slowed down grid connections.

In 2025 the local gas distribution company Cadent Gas paid out £38 per household in dividends to its shareholders. These include Australian asset management firm Macquarie and the Chinese sovereign wealth fund.

Cat Hobbs, director of We Own It, said:

It’s really shocking that Andy Burnham has spent the last few weeks attacking 40 years of Thatcherite privatisation but won’t take a clear position on the local water and energy companies ripping off the people of Makerfield.

Voters deserve to know if he will stand up for them or for a handful of shareholders around the world. Keir Starmer promised public ownership and then betrayed voters. Burnham can’t fool us twice.

Water and energy are profitable assets with a revenue stream so it’s a great deal for the public purse to bring them into public hands. United Utilities and the North West energy grid are monopolies – there is no market. So we need accountability as citizens, and profits reinvested instead of leaking out.

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Public ownership is not unaffordable

The campaigners say public ownership is affordable because the cost of compensating shareholders is decided in court and can include factors like lack of investment and the public interest.

Drawing on a report from the Public Services International Research Unit, they argue that the compensation for Electricity North West could be recovered in less than 6 years. Meanwhile, Cadent Gas shareholders have injected so little into the company that it would only take 4 hours for public ownership to pay for itself. United Utilities is a profitable asset and public ownership would mean that a third of our bills wouldn’t need to be spent on dividends and expensive debt.

The water and energy companies all have a 25 year notice period on their licences, and the campaigners argue this should be reduced.

The pledge also includes a policy to end the BlackRock deal with Greater Manchester Pension Fund that enables the private equity giant to buy up GP surgeries.

The campaigners point out that the public control of the BeeNetwork is not the same as public ownership, and they are demanding both. The pledge includes a demand to set up a publicly owned bus company in Greater Manchester, like Lothian Buses or Reading Buses, so that all profits can be reinvested back into the network.

Green Party candidate Sarah Wakefield said:

The people of Makerfield deserve clean rivers, and a system which puts their needs before the needs of shareholders.

She also said:

The Green Party has always supported public ownership of utilities.

And Wakefield said she is “right behind” taking back the grid, especially:

in the context of the current affordability crisis and rising energy prices.

The only We Own It demand Wakefield hasn’t signed up to is the call for a publicly owned bus company. She only promises:

effective public control over all of Manchester’s buses, trams and railways.

Hobbs pointed out:

Public control and public ownership are not the same thing. It’s brilliant that Burnham introduced the BeeNetwork but in addition to control of the networks he could set up a publicly owned bus company for Greater Manchester like the very successful Reading Buses and Lothian Buses.

And he should be standing up against BlackRock by saying no to them buying up GP surgeries through a Greater Manchester Pension Fund deal.

Featured image via the Canary

By The Canary

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