Campaigners warn Starmer’s social media ban will harm disabled kids

Campaigners warn Starmer’s social media ban will harm disabled kids

Charities and campaigners have warned that Keir Starmer’s plan to ban under-16s from social media will isolate disabled and LGBTQ+ children. This week, Labour prime minister announced new legislation to stop children from accessing apps like Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok, X and YouTube. The ban will take effect in Spring 2027 and restrict livestreams and ‘stranger communication’ for children, including on gaming sites. The ban won’t help any kids There are already concerns that, without regulating the tech companies, this will do very little to protect children from the dangers of the internet and punish them instead. The Canary’s Maddison Wheeldon argues that:…

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Sinister Labour MP wants to ‘finish the job’ on assisted dying

Sinister Labour MP wants to ‘finish the job’ on assisted dying

The Labour MP who has launched another attempt to rush assisted dying through parliament has urged the Lords to ‘finish the job’. Labour MP for Rochester and Strood Laura Edwards is attempting to push assisted dying through parliament again using dirty tricks. BREAKING: The Assisted Dying Bill will be reintroduced to Parliament next week by Labour MP Lauren Edwards pic.twitter.com/uzvJm5mIoR — Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) June 14, 2026 Dirty tricks again on assisted dying Under the Parliament Act, if the same bill is passed by MPs in two consecutive parliamentary sessions, peers have no power to stop it. While Lords can suggest amendments,…

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Canary Catch Up: A week of TV announcements – including on the BBC’s Doctor Who

Canary Catch Up: A week of TV announcements – including on the BBC’s Doctor Who

Hello and welcome to Canary Catch Up. Each week, our resident telly addict Rachel Charlton-Dailey will bring us bang up to date with the shows she’s been obsessed with, what she’s hate-watching, and what she can’t wait to get stuck into. Something I was painfully aware of when I started this column was that some weeks there wouldn’t be a lot of TV to talk about. Living with chronic illness means I sometimes can’t look at screens, and some weeks the telly is just crap. Last week, unless you’re interested in football (which I’m not), there wasn’t really a lot to watch.…

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DWP shutdown Whateley’s ‘polygamous marriages are stealing benefits’ dogwhistle

DWP shutdown Whateley’s ‘polygamous marriages are stealing benefits’ dogwhistle

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has debunked the right-wing dog whistle suggesting Muslims are claiming benefits for households where a man has multiple wives. Racist British media are beating the same drum to whip-up hatred against Muslims again… GB News, of course, led the charge, running with the headline “DWP increases benefits paid to husbands with two or more wives.” The rag continued: The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has increased the weekly allowance paid to additional spouses in recognised overseas polygamous marriages as part of this year’s benefits uprating. From April 2026, each additional spouse in an…

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DWP’s new AI jobcentre built a CV for a parrot, what will it force disabled people into?

DWP’s new AI jobcentre built a CV for a parrot, what will it force disabled people into?

Keir Starmer has launched the latest crap policy that he thinks will save his failing premiership: an AI jobcentre advisor – because that’s exactly what the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) need. DWP and AI needs to walk the plank The Prime Minister announced at London Tech Week that the DWP had developed the new ‘AI work assistant’. Starmer called the tool a ‘jobcentre in your pocket’ and said it would help unemployed people find work and help build them CVs. Science editor at The Times, Tom Whipple decided to give it a go, with a twist. He wrote on…

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Canary Catch Up: Pride month gets off to a horrifying start with Tip Toe and Rivals

Canary Catch Up: Pride month gets off to a horrifying start with Tip Toe and Rivals

Hello and welcome to Canary Catch Up. Each week, our resident telly addict Rachel Charlton-Dailey will bring us bang up to date with the shows she’s been obsessed with, what she’s hate-watching, and what she can’t wait to get stuck into. Trigger warning: This article contains discussion of homophobic hate crimes and the murder of a gay man. Please take care when reading. Pride 2026 I’ve been thinking a lot about pride and my local community this week. We, like many parts of the country, got a Reform council in May. For anyone who is disabled and isn’t straight, white and…

Continue ReadingCanary Catch Up: Pride month gets off to a horrifying start with Tip Toe and Rivals

Canary Catch Up: Sauciness of Rivals and substanceless The Testaments

Canary Catch Up: Sauciness of Rivals and substanceless The Testaments

Hello and welcome to Canary Catch Up. Each week, our resident telly addict Rachel Charlton-Dailey will bring us bang up to date with the shows she’s been obsessed with, what she’s hate-watching, and what she can’t wait to get stuck into. My God, it’s been hot this week, hasn’t it? I’m not made for this weather, but on one of the rare occasions I left my cool house, I saw the fantastic Mike Garry perform his poetry at King Ink in Sunderland. Garry’s poetry is a sharp look at working-class family life. His poem ‘what me mam taught me’ brought tears to…

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Milburn report is contradicted by what the DWP is doing

Milburn report is contradicted by what the DWP is doing

Yesterday saw the release of the interim report of the Milburn Review into youth unemployment. However, it completely contradicts everything the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is already doing to make life harder for unemployed and disabled young people. A media circus instead of support The long-awaited report was supposed to delve into why so many young people are unemployed. However, that was never going to be the whole story when it was run by Alan Milburn. Once you got past the DWP-created media circus, the report was Milburn’s attempt to prove his foregone conclusion that young people were faking…

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DWP Milburn Report is another excuse to throw disabled kids under the bus

DWP Milburn Report is another excuse to throw disabled kids under the bus

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) released the interim report for the Milburn Review on Youth Unemployment yesterday. The report was an exercise in how the DWP has a compliant corporate media at its beck and call. But as always, we need to look at the parts of the report the DWP didn’t want shouted from the rooftops. Corporate shills marching to the DWP’s beat The corporate media, of course, had a field day yesterday getting to crow about the ‘lost generation’, especially those with mental health conditions. At one point, both the BBC and Guardian were running live rolling…

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DWP hypes youth unemployment panic ahead of Milburn Review

DWP hypes youth unemployment panic ahead of Milburn Review

The long-awaited interim report into the Milburn Review on youth unemployment is expected today. In typical style, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) are already steering the corporate media in its benefits-hating direction. DWP Milburn review out today In November 2025, the department announced an independent review into why so many young people were Not in Employment, Education of Training (NEETs). The review is run by Alan Milburn. He has been prolific in wanting to strip disabled people of unemployment benefits. Additionally, the review will focus heavily on why kids aren’t working or in education. However, this is Labour so…

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