Tom Slater is the editor of Spiked.
Calling someone Darth Vader. If that’s as bad as your workplace banter gets, I’d suggest you find a more entertaining place to work. Yet, incredibly, an NHS worker not only took enormous offence to being compared to the bucketheaded villain of the Star Wars franchise, she also took her employers to a tribunal. She’s just
So it’s a not-so-fond farewell to Just Stop Oil, the soup-throwing, hand-gluing environmentalist troupe. According to JSO activist Hannah Hunt, who helped kick off the group’s campaign of infamy back in 2022, she and her comrades are calling it a day. The reason? They’ve just been too successful. ‘Just Stop Oil’s demand to end new oil
Are you angry about bin collections? Potty about potholes? Incandescent about the behaviour of your local council or councillors? Well whatever you do, don’t post disparaging things about them on the internet. Unless you want a visit from the police, that is. Yes, saying critical things about your elected local representatives is the latest thing that
The bonfire of DEI cobblers continues. Disney is reportedly removing its patronising trigger warnings from many of the films on its streaming service, presumably having finally realised that audiences do not like being talked down to, and that Peter Pan, Dumbo and The Aristocats are not actually engines of racist radicalisation, as its more insufferable execs
The police are coming for your WhatsApp groups. And if that doesn’t strike terror into your heart, you’re not using WhatsApp properly. The hapless former health minister and Labour MP for Gorton and Denton, Andrew Gwynne, hasn’t just been sacked by Keir Starmer for his offensive messages about pensioners, Mossad and Diane Abbott. He’s also been reported to
For years now, higher education has been convulsed by a never-ending hunt for racism. A certain type of academic or student activist sees it oozing out of every pore of campus life, from statues to ‘microaggressions’ to student bar fancy-dress nights. And yet, if you were looking for a clear-cut example of a racist university
Just when you thought it was safe to go to a museum, art gallery or World Heritage Site, Just Stop Oil has struck again. Having already defaced Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, Stonehenge and Magna Carta, the eco-activist group has decided to really hit the fossil-fuel industry where it hurts this time… by defacing Charles Darwin’s grave at Westminster Abbey. Take that, BP! Today,
The vibe shift is real. Yes, all the chatter about the re-election of Donald Trump causing a cultural sea change in American life might just have something to it – if Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s shock announcement is anything to go by. In a five-minute video, Zuck – who also appears to have undergone a Gen
Elon Musk is a man of tremendous gifts, to put it mildly. He recently caught a rocket between some chopsticks, for crying out loud. But insight into the mood of British politics is clearly not one of those gifts. Having only just learned about Britain’s shameful, grotesque, never-ending grooming-gangs scandal, declaring that Jess Phillips should
Here’s a tip. If you’re having trouble getting the police to promptly attend after a burglary, tell them the scumbag tweeted something mean about you as he made his escape. If the outrageous experience of Daily Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson is anything to go by, this is sure to shoot you right to the top of plod’s priority list.
Anti-fascism ain’t what it used to be. It used to mean signing up to go to fight Franco’s fascists in Spain, turning out against Oswald Mosley in the East End, or trading punches with National Front thugs. Now it means trying to get right-wing Tory MPs no platformed on elite university campuses – and occasionally
Socialism, wrote George Orwell, has often had a habit of attracting posh cranks. He witheringly described the ‘sandal-wearers and bearded fruit-juice drinkers who come knocking towards the smell of “progress” like bluebottles to a dead cat’. Even though Starmer’s Labour has all but dropped the s-word, fully embracing its role as the party of the
Pray for Windsor. From today, Extinction Rebellion is descending on Windsor Home Park for ‘three days of creative, peaceful action to propose democratic renewal’. It sounds like a mini festival – offering a mix of politics, camping and amateur dramatics. There will be a ‘Massembly’, in which the assembled extreme greens will discuss and vote on how
It’s boom time at Ofcom. In the past few years, what was until recently the government-backed regulator for broadcasting, telecoms and postal industries (already an absurdly broad range of responsibilities) has seen its remit expanded beyond all recognition. Following the passage of the Online Safety Act 2023, Ofcom has been handed the famously straightforward task
It’s hard to keep up with what is racist these days. It used to be straightforward. You know, discriminating against, hating or depriving rights to certain groups for no other reason than the colour of their skin. But that quaint definition just won’t do anymore. Nowadays, the countryside is racist, maths is racist, telling a
It must be exhausting being Elon Musk. Alongside sending rockets into space, working on brain implants and running one of the world’s biggest social-media firms, he seems to have a plethora of beefs to attend to. The arrogance of EU officialdom knows no bounds. So soon after Musk’s war of words with Keir Starmer, over
Just Stop Oil’s campaign to infuriate ordinary people has moved up a gear. After bringing traffic to a standstill and disrupting play at the snooker, now its activists are targeting those havens of peace, harmony and low blood pressure: Britain’s bustling airports during the school summer holidays. A group of JSOers sat themselves down on
‘A politics that treads more lightly on all our lives.’ That’s what Keir Starmer – remarkably, our new Prime Minister – promised a weary nation as he was vying for their vote. Perhaps fittingly, he ended up with a victory that is incredibly light on voters – a huge majority on a lower vote share than any
What a difference a week makes. Last week, White House spinners and Democratic pundits were insisting that clips of US president Joe Biden appearing to freeze up, slur his words and generally show his age at various public events were selectively edited ‘cheap fakes’ – tawdry, low-tech misinformation put about by the scurrilous right-wing media. Now, after Biden froze
Far be it from me to give advice to the Green Party. From their insistence that ordinary people put up with being poorer and colder to ‘save the planet’ to the alarmingly high number of Israelophobic, 7 October-denying cranks on their candidates list, I’m really not a fan. Still, I’d gently suggest that the golden rule for
