Author: Miles Donavan

Kemi Badenoch is appointing her shadow cabinet team Following her election as leader of the Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch has begun appointing members of her shadow cabinet. The appointments are expected to be completed by Tuesday 5 November. Badenoch’s first appointment was Laura Trott, who has been given the shadow education post. Trott’s only previous cabinet experience was as Chief Secretary to the Treasury in he dying days of Rishi Sunak’s government. Last year, she was heavily criticised by disability groups for saying disabled people had a ‘duty’ to find work they could do from home. Neil O’Brien has also…

“I cannot in all conscience remain in a political party that is pursuing an authoritarian political agenda whose primary objective is to retain the neoliberal status quo” The former Labour MP Beth Winter has announced that she has left the Labour Party. Winter served as the MP for Cynon Valley from 2019 to 2024. Winter said that the Labour Party no longer represents a ‘socialist vision’ and accused it of ‘pursuing an authoritarian political agenda’. In a statement, she said: “It has been the greatest honour of my life to serve as the MP for my home, Cynon Valley, elected…

No Restore Trust candidates were elected to the National Trust’s Council Members of the National Trust voted to elect members of the organisation’s Council last month, with the results being announced at its AGM on November 2. As in previous years, the ‘anti-woke’ group Restore Trust attempted to use the elections to stage a right wing takeover of the National Trust. Restore Trust has drawn issue with a number of policies and positions adopted by the National Trust in recent years. In particular, the group has criticised the National Trust’s reports linking some of its properties to slavery and colonialism.…

‘The government, Ofgem, the energy sector and industry bodies must work collaboratively to make energy more affordable for all.’ Over 4.4 million children in Britain are currently growing up in poverty, according to recent data from the Institute of Health Equity (IHE). It is estimated that approximately 1.7 million school days are lost across Europe each year due to illnesses linked to dampness and mould. The rate of school absences among children in the UK is 80 percent higher than the European average. The UK has the oldest and least efficient housing stock in Europe. Since 2013, installation rates of…

‘It’s time to reclaim our right to clean and abundant water for all people across the UK.’ In 2023, sewage was dumped in UK rivers over 596,666 times. That’s once every minute. From January to late March this year, Thames Water had pumped human waste into the Greater London area of the River Thames for a staggering 1,914 hours – equivalent to 79 days, as revealed by River Action.   The same can be said about United Utilities in the North West. The water company, which serves seven million customers, has faced heavy criticism for its environmental record. In 2023,…

For its devoted readers, the Mail serves as a bastion of traditional British values. For its critics, the Daily Fail or the Daily Wail as it’s known, presents the worse curtain-twitching paranoia. As the right-wing media uproar continues over the first Labour budget in 14 years, it’s a timely moment to reflect on how a century ago, the first-ever Labour government was toppled with the help of a forged letter sensationalised by the press. What we now recognise as ‘fake news’ effectively originated on October 29, 1924, when the Daily Mail published the Zinoviev letter. The document, allegedly from the head of the Communist International in…

‘Another Brexit benefit’ Non-EU visitors – including Britons since we bid au revoir to the EU – could be forced to pay more to visit top attractions in France. Under French government plans, a 5-euro surcharge could be added to non-EU nationals to visit sites owned by the state, including museums, monuments and attractions like the Eifel Tower. The extra money will be used to help with the upkeep and maintenance of historic sites. It is hoped that the scheme would raise €75m a year, which, as France’s culture minister Rachida Dati claimed, would be enough to “save all the…

‘It’s time for Shell to pay up’   Devastating floods in the Valencia region of Spain have claimed at least 155 lives this week. Scientists are pointing to climate change as a major factor exacerbating the disaster. “No doubt about it, these explosive downpours were intensified by climate change,” said Dr Friederike Otto from Imperial College London, who leads an international group of scientists who try to understand the role that global warming plays in these type of events. Amid harrowing images of the flooding in Spain, news broke of Shell’s $6 billion profits for the third quarter, surpassing forecasts…

The public haven’t warmed to the Tories At the time of writing, we don’t know whether Robert Jenrick or Kemi Badenoch will be the next leader of the Conservative Party. But we do know they’ve got a mighty uphill struggle to turn around the party’s fortunes after its worst ever general election defeat. New polling has firmly driven this home. The headline figures from YouGov’s latest poll on the Tory leadership election will make grim reading in Tory circles. Here are the 8 key stats you need to know from the poll: Keir Starmer has a 7 point lead over…

Some of these are beyond belief Voting has now closed in the Conservative Party leadership election. The results of the contest, which ran for more than three months, will be announced on 2 November. The campaign has hardly bathed the Conservative Party in glory. Indeed, it’s had its fair share of ridiculous moments. In advance of the results being announced, we run down ten of the most absurd moments in the Conservative Party leadership election. 1. One poll found just 2% of the public think Tory members seem normal The British public don’t have a huge amount of faith in…