Britain has a grooming gang problem — but it isn’t the one you’ve been told to worry about. Advances in technology and the dominance of online platforms have transformed the scale and nature of child sexual abuse. Offenders no longer need to operate in physical groups or specific locations. They can access victims anywhere, at… Read More Britain’s Real Grooming Gang Scandal
Reform UK’s donor list this year reads like a map of global capital. A £9 million donation from a businessman based in Thailand. Hundreds of thousands from a telecoms entrepreneur born in Beirut with global interests. Large sums emerging from corporate vehicles and overseas-linked donors. Fund raising dinners in Dubai hosted by Mumbai billionaires. According… Read More Reform: Foreign Money, Loopholes and the Race Against the Clock
The schism on Britain’s hard right is no longer gossip; it is formal. Rupert Lowe, reportedly buoyed by encouragement from Elon Musk’s online ecosystem, has launched a rival to Reform. His one-MP outfit is called Restore. The launch, staged in Great Yarmouth, leaned heavily into hard-line rhetoric on immigration and “national restoration”: mass deportations, drastic… Read More Rupert Lowe: The New New Far Far Right
Last week, Nigel Farage announced that a future Reform government would ban working from home. If that sounds familiar, it’s because you’ve heard it before. Boris Johnson floated the same idea four years ago. Same rhetoric. Same applause lines. Same fatal flaw. Reform supporters bristle when critics describe the party as a retirement home for… Read More Banning Working From Home: Bad Policy Comes Round Again
I don’t normally write about football, least of all Newcastle. As a Sunderland fan, I’m not entirely neutral. But something is happening in football that reflects something much bigger. Cristiano Ronaldo is reportedly unhappy at his Saudi club despite being paid eye-watering sums, frustrated that no major new signings have arrived. Meanwhile Newcastle United —… Read More From Newcastle to NEOM: What Weaker Oil Prices Really Mean
The Government is in chaos. Keir Starmer hangs by a thread. A General Election is imminent as the administration approaches collapse. If you spend too long online, or read certain newspapers, that is the story. From bot accounts to Daily Mail columnists hyperventilating into their keyboards, the narrative is constant: crisis, scandal, imminent implosion. And… Read More Starmer Chaos? Not Quite.
No, It’s Not “Foreigners Using the NHS” It’s total nonsense, despite what you read online. To be eligible for NHS treatment, you have to be ordinarily resident in the UK. Your entitlement doesn’t last forever once you leave. If you’ve been living abroad and you return, you are not automatically treated as a permanent UK… Read More Have 735,000 foreign patients registered with the NHS?
I’ve been back in the UK for a few months now. A few things have struck me after being away for a while. People are angry — really angry. As soon as you get off the plane you encounter people wound up and looking for a row. A trip to the supermarket means road rage,… Read More Rough Sleeping, Anger, and What’s Changed
Strike!!! Britain is on strike. A massive strike to bring the government to its knees and force a general election. At least, that’s the claim. This isn’t just people refusing to work for a week. The strike also involves not shopping, not going to the pub, not doing… anything. Total withdrawal from society. You didn’t… Read More Inside the Weird World of the Online Right
I was in Barcelona last weekend. One of the world’s best cities. It also happened to be the opening weekend of Melania, the new documentary about Melania Trump, and the promotion was impossible to miss. A massive billboard dominated Plaça de Catalunya. Every bus stop seemed to have her face on it. Amazon money, very… Read More Melania, or: How to Make a Hit Movie No One Can See