Politics

Another feminist getting no-platformed in Scotland is hardly news. Poets, writers, students, academics, comedians and, of course, film-makers have become inured to being cancelled north of the border if they stray from the dogma that trans women are women. Normally this kind of thing happens in the shadows, without publicity. People just find, like the poet Jenny Lindsay, that their livelihood disappears. Cancellation is the standard operating procedure for the handful of trans activists who seem to have a stranglehold on Scottish cultural life and education institutions. But this time they took on someone willing to fight back.  The SNP MP for Edinburgh Central, Joanna Cherry, refused to go quietly when the Stand Comedy Club, which was

Terror threats from Islamist and far-right terrorists are depressingly familiar to Brits, but other faiths are not immune from the plague of extremists who might seek to harm others. A recent report by Colin Bloom, the government’s faith engagement advisor, touched on lesser-known ideologies like ‘Buddhist nationalism’ and ‘Hindu nationalism’. It also raised concerns about ‘Sikh extremism’. But how much of a problem is this particular form of radicalism in Britain? ‘Small pockets of Sikh communities’ in Britain are involved with ‘subversive, sectarian and discriminatory activities,’ according to the report. The numbers here are small. According to the 2021 census, there are 524,000 Sikhs in England and Wales, which equates

Two months after leaving government, Sue Gray is still causing headaches for ministers. The partygate inquisitor is back in the news following her refusal to cooperate with a Cabinet Office probe into her shock defection to the Starmtroopers as Sir Keir’s chief of staff. Unwilling to answer questions to an official government inquiry? What would the Sue Gray of 2021 make of that… Attention therefore switches to the second investigation being conducted by ACOBA into Gray’s defection. This, Labour says, ought to be the real inquiry because ACOBA is an independent body, exempt from the machinations of those beastly Tories. They are expected to make a recommendation on Gray’s appointment by

So, just what exactly does Keir Starmer stand for? In the latest wheeze to distract from the Sue Gray drama and prove that Labour is now a Serious Party of Government, the spin doctors at Labour HQ have opted to ditch the party’s long-standing pledge to abolish tuition fees. As recently as 2021 he was lambasting it as ‘a huge debt for young people that they carry around for a long time’ which is ‘why we rightly committed at the last election to get rid of tuition fees.’ Yet all that has now changed apparently, as the party seeks to embrace a new-found spirit of fiscal probity – an approach

When I learned that the Prime Minister was thinking of launching a new Help to Buy scheme, my first response was ‘Oh no’. My second response was the same, with the caveat that we are in the last days of campaigning for local council elections, with a general election a year or so down the line, so anything that looks like a political promise now may not actually happen. If it does though, my objections will be the same as when David Cameron and George Osborne launched the first version – except there is now more evidence of Help to Buy’s deleterious effects. ‘Help to Buy Mark I’ mostly assisted