Charlie Alford

Burnham restores the whip to Diane Abbott and deplorable bigot Joani Reid

Post author:Grace
Post published:31 July 2026
Post last modified:31 July 2026

With Andy Burnham not two weeks into his tenure as PM, the new Labour leader has restored the whip to both Diane Abbott and Joani Reid. Both MPs went through independent disciplinary processes. Starmer suspended Abbott for a second time back in July 2025. Both suspensions related to a 2023 letter in the Observer, in which Abbott claimed that Irish, Jewish and Traveller people experience prejudice but not racism. The letter triggered the first suspension, and her defence of that opinion in a 2025 interview triggered the second. Reid, for her part, relinquished the whip voluntarily in March 2026. The Metropolitan Police…

Hackney votes to end 58-year Haifa twinning, citing “anti-racist values”

Post author:Charlie Jaay
Post published:31 July 2026
Post last modified:31 July 2026

Hackney’s Green Party-led Council has voted to end its 58-year-old twin-city agreement with Haifa, a port city that “Israel” violently captured in 1948. Councillors have upheld the vote as a commitment in their May 2026 local elections manifesto. They have pledged to end the twinning arrangement at “the earliest possible opportunity,” the details of which are under consideration. The decision follows years of pressure by Palestine solidarity activists. The decades-long campaign involved a broad coalition of groups. These included the Greens, Stop the War, Hackney Independent Socialist Collective, and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC). The campaign gathered steam in 2024. At…

‘Try-again’ PM Burnham lauds nukes and militarism during BAE visit

Post author:Joe Glenton
Post published:31 July 2026
Post last modified:31 July 2026

New PM Andy Burnham’s left-wing credentials have lasted about as long as left-out milk. Less than a fortnight into his reign, the gimmicky Scouser was spotted bowing to The Holy Nukes in a visit to BAE Systems’ Barrow-in-Furness death factory. BAE won’t fix what’s broken Burnham told reporters: Keeping this country safe is the first responsibility of any government – but security is not only about what we build; it is about who builds it, and who benefits from it. Nukes, naturally, are well known for bestowing safety. In a press release ahead of the visit on 30 July, the government insisted:…

Militarist chancellor Healey wants military oversight of defence budget

Post author:Joe Glenton
Post published:31 July 2026
Post last modified:31 July 2026

Newly appointed chancellor John Healey has opened the door for the UK military to shape defence budgets. His proposal is another step away from democratic oversight of how public money is spent. And it’s all part of a defence spending ideology that’s full of holes! Declassified UK reported on 30 July: Britain’s new chancellor John Healey has asked for a military officer to accompany him at the Treasury, it has emerged. The move indicates how much weight Healey will place on weapons procurement after resigning as defence secretary last month in protest at Keir Starmer’s military spending plans. The UK-based outlet…

Data breach exposing UK-allied Afghans to Taliban reprisals ‘completely foreseeable’

Post author:Joe Glenton
Post published:31 July 2026
Post last modified:31 July 2026

The UK defence committee has found a data breach which left UK-aligned Afghans exposed to the Taliban was “completely foreseeable”. The 2023 breach, kept secret until 2025 due to a court order, meant that a spreadsheet containing personal details of 18, 500 Afghans was made public. Afghan resettlement programme The Taliban took over Afghanistan after the US and UK left in defeat in 2021. The details were part of the UK’s so-called Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP). This British governmental scheme was meant to help relocate Afghans who had worked for the Brits in roles which made them targets for…