Author: Miles Donavan

“This is headline chasing, not problem solving – a Government bowing to anti-immigrant, anti-rights politics.” Charities and MPs have condemned Shabana Mahmood’s hardline plans to make it harder for asylum seekers and refugees to settle in the UK. The proposals Mahmood set out yesterday include reviewing people’s refugee status every 30 months and forcing refugees to return to their home country if it becomes safe. The changes would mean those with asylum status would have to wait 20 years, rather than five, to become UK citizens. Mahmood also said she would amend laws that guarantee housing and financial support to…

“It is Green Party politicians who are absolute hypocrites because they talk great language in here then oppose asylum accommodation in their own constituencies.” Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood tore into Green Party MP Carla Denyer yesterday in the Commons during what was a fiery clash over the government’s overhaul of the asylum system. Mahmood set out the biggest overhaul to the UK’s asylum policy since the second world war. It is modelled on the stricter approach brought in by Denmark’s centre-left government, makes refugee status temporary, narrows the appeal process and threatens visa bans on countries that block returns, while…

Amid the threat posed by Farage and Reform’s rise in the polls, the government recognises that unless it can assert control and grip over the problem, there is a real risk it could lose to Reform. With concern over immigration growing, and the issue now ranked by the public as one of the most important facing the country, the Labour government has made tackling illegal immigration a major priority. Amid the threat posed by Farage and Reform’s rise in the polls, the government recognises that unless it can assert control and grip over the problem, there is a real risk…

The BBC presenter never made any such statement.. The Daily Mail has once more been forced into an apology because of inaccuracies in its ‘journalism’, this time having to apologise to a BBC presenter for attributing a quote to him that he never made. At a time when the right-wing press is keen to stick the boot into the BBC after Trump threatened to sue the corporation after Panorama broadcast a misleading edit of a speech he made before the Capitol riots on January 6, 2020, the right-wing media have failed to put their own house in order. On Saturday,…

‘There’s patriotism for you.’ Disgraced former Prime Minister Liz Truss has sunk even lower, as she cheered on Donald Trump’s attacks on the BBC and called for the President to destroy the corporation, leading to her being criticised for her fake patriotism. Truss, whose premiership ended in disaster, and who was booted out of office after just 49 days, making her Britain’s shortest ever serving Prime Minister, has continued to make the headlines for all the wrong reasons since her exit. She has sought to blame the deep state for her disastrous time in office, while also pushing far-right narratives…

You’d think with all that’s going on in the world, a poppy pile on would be at the bottom of the pile, not the top They’re damned if they don’t wear them, and damned if they do – ‘lefties’ and poppies that is. Laurence Fox reached another new low this week, tweeting: “This foreigner has no right to wear the poppy. Or to sit in parliament, for that matter, Go home @ZarahSultana.” Zarah Sultana, the MP for Coventry South, is from Birmingham. Her family is of Pakistani ancestry, having settled in the city in the 1960s when her grandfather migrated…

If you were to catalogue all of GB News’ offences against its own claims of “honesty” and “balance,” you could fill a book. An interesting subject line landed in my inbox from GB News this week (yes, I subscribe, purely to keep tabs on what they’re up to). It read: “Why GB News matters more than ever.” The message came from Bev Turner, GB News host who, in 2023, faced criticism for tweeting that Covid “causes less harm to certain ethnicities — East Asians and Ashkenazi Jews (Fauci anyone?).” Curious, I opened the email, though I already had a fair idea of what to…

In 2024, the median court fine was £283, while the average sanction for a claimant aged 25 or over amounted to £524. Universal Credit sanctions, deductions applied to a claimant’s payment when the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) decides they have not met work-related requirements, were in the news this week. New research from the Central England Law Centre (CELC) and the Public Law Project (PLP) suggests that in addition to being harmful, counterproductive and disproportionate, many sanctions are being imposed inappropriately. The report found that sanctioned individuals typically lose 100 percent of their standard allowance for anywhere between…

“Tackling this social emergency must be the top priority.” As the Autumn Budget gets closer, Labour MP Richard Burgon, is ramping up calls for a wealth tax. The MP for Leeds East contends how the richest are amassing even greater fortunes while millions struggle with soaring food prices, rising energy bills, and unaffordable housing costs. In an open letter to Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves, Burgon calls the cost-of-living crisis “the number one issue facing people across the country” and insists that “tackling this social emergency must be the top priority” in the Budget. He and other signatories are urging…

The true scandal isn’t just the right’s distortion of BBC bias, it’s the rot within the system that allowed this farce to happen. The vultures barely waited for the body to go cold. By Monday morning, the smug right-wing press were crowing over the resignations of director general Tim Davie and News CEO Deborah Turness amid accusations of bias. “Beeb boss quits over Trump lies,” shrieked the Sun. “BBC bosses quit in disgrace,” cheered the Daily Mail. The next day, they had the added bonus of plastering their front pages with Donald Trump’s threat: “Grovel – or I’ll sue you for $1 billion.”…