Tag: united kingdom

Online Safety Act: Ofcom’s super-complaints scheme will be used to censor “emerging online harms”

Introduction

Ofcom is a public corporation accountable to the UK Parliament.  It is the UK’s regulator for communications services.  It regulates the UK’s broadband, home phone and mobile services, TV, radio and video on demand services, oversees the universal postal service and looks after the airwaves used by wireless devices such as cordless phones, walkie-talkies and even some car keys and doorbells.

With the introduction of the Online Safety Act (“the Act”) in 2023, Ofcom became the regulator for online safety.  The aim is that Ofcom will become the online regulator not only in the UK but globally.

The Act gives Ofcom the powers they need to take appropriate action against all companies in scope, no matter where they are based, where services have relevant links with the UK. This means services with a significant number of UK users or where UK users are a target market, as well as other services which have in-scope content that presents a risk of significant harm to people in the UK.Online Safety Act: explainer, Department for Science, Innovation & Technology, UK Government, 24 April 2025

What are Super-Complaints?

A super-complaint is a formal mechanism established under the Online Safety Act that allows designated organisations to raise concerns about systemic issues affecting users of regulated online services.  Unlike individual complaints, super-complaints focus on broad, emerging trends or widespread problems across multiple platforms, rather than isolated incidents. 

Eligible entities, such as consumer protection bodies or organisations representing users, can submit these complaints to trigger a specific regulatory response from Ofcom.  The super-complaints regime is designed to complement Ofcom’s own research and horizon scanning, a forward-looking assessment of emerging risks and trends in digital services.

“The super-complaints regime, in line with the Act and recent Government regulations … will enable eligible entities to raise systemic issues that arise across services or, in exceptional circumstances, on one service, to our attention. We expect to consult on draft guidance for potential super-complainants in September 2025 and publish our final guidance in early 2026,” Ofcom’s roadmap to regulation of “online safety” states.

From November 2023 to 11 January 2024, the Government ran a public consultation on the eligible entity criteria and procedure for super-complaints.  The Government’s response to the consultation was published on 9 June 2025; the Ministerial Foreword by Baroness Maggie Jones stated:

The objective of the super-complaints regime is to ensure that eligible entities can make complaints to Ofcom, as regulator, to make them aware of existing or emerging online harms. This will also support Ofcom’s horizon scanning function, supporting Ofcom in taking an agile approach to regulating online harms.

Once approved by both Houses of Parliament, the super-complaints regime will come into force on 31 December 2025.Ministerial Foreword, Consultation Outcome: Super-complaints eligible entity criteria and procedural requirements: government response, UK Government, 9 June 2025

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Revealed: Keir Starmer edited manual on interpreting human rights laws that prevent Britain from deporting small boat migrants

Sir Keir Starmer edited the manual on how to interpret the human rights laws that are preventing Britain from deporting small-boat migrants.

The Prime Minister edited a guide on the Human Rights Act 1998 and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in 1999 when he was a human rights lawyer.

A copy of the book revealed Sir Keir hailed the Human Rights Act as having ‘enormous potential’ and representing a ‘new way of thinking’ about the law.

It came as the Attorney General yesterday ruled out leaving the ECHR and claimed it would be counterproductive for Britain to leave the Convention to tackle illegal migration.

Appearing before the Lords constitution committee, Lord Hermer said ministers would leave ‘no stone unturned’ on the issue. Yet he went on: ‘The Prime Minister has been absolutely crystal clear that we will not be leaving the ECHR.

‘There are a number of reasons for that, but at the heart of it is because it would be completely contrary to the national interest of this country were we to do so.’

Lord Hermer said the UK would only be able to tackle illegal migration by cooperating with Europe if it remains compliant with the ECHR.

‘To leave, as some people are now advocating, would be entirely counterproductive if what we are seeking is not rhetorical answers but real, practical answers,’ he added.

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UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood Revives Digital ID Plans

Newly appointed UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has opened the door to the rollout of digital ID systems in the UK, reviving a proposal she has previously supported.

Mahmood’s remarks came during a high-level meeting with allies in the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, where migration and security were top of the agenda.

Speaking alongside her counterparts from the US, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, she laid out her position.

“Well my long-term personal political view has always been in favor of ID cards. In fact I supported the last Labour government’s introduction of ID cards. The first bill I spoke on in Parliament was the ID cards bill which the then Conservative Lib Dem coalition scrapped. So I have a long-standing position which anybody who’s familiar with my view.”

Her comments arrive just days into her tenure, following a dramatic cabinet reshuffle that has reset key departments, including the Home Office.

With illegal small boat crossings continuing to rise and more than 1,000 people arriving in a single day over the weekend, the pressure on the government to deliver results is intensifying. The total number of arrivals this year has already passed 30,000.

Mahmood emphasized that these plans are not borrowed ideas.

“This is a Labour government with Labour policy and Labour proposals,” she said. She insisted that Labour had been preparing these policy positions well in advance of taking office.

Mahmood added that digital ID is something that she has “always supported.”

Now in a position to influence policy directly, she stopped short of confirming a rollout but said it remains under discussion within government. She offered no clear answer when asked whether every UK citizen would be required to have one.

The stated goal is to reduce illegal employment and weaken incentives that draw people to cross into the UK without authorization. For privacy advocates, however, the return of digital ID proposals raises longstanding concerns about surveillance, data control, and potential misuse.

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Britain’s Descent Towards Civil War Is No Accident

Having lived in Australia for the past three years, I sense that this country is the least advanced down the road towards the multicultural dystopia confronting much of Europe.

That is not to say there is room for complacency: Australia has its own canaries in the coal mine, echoing trends observable across the Western world. Yet relative prosperity, firm immigration policies, a distinct welfare regime (mandatory health insurance, means tested pensions), a robust federal system, and above all a unique electoral framework of three-year cycles and compulsory voting all help, willy-nilly, to keep politicians on a short leash and broadly tethered to the popular will.

The greatest safeguard against social fracture and disintegration in Australia, however, is not institutional design but rather watching Britain implode in real time. Many Australians, still bound by ties of kinship and tradition to the old country, see in the United Kingdom both a cautionary tale and an anti-role model: a once-settled, relatively harmonious state busily teaching the world how to dismantle itself through the enthusiastic embrace of liberal dogma.

As an observer no longer resident in Britain, I am reluctant to pontificate on the fate of my homeland. Yet it is a sight to behold: an establishment seemingly bent on self-destruction, clinging to an incontinent immigration system and an almost devotional attachment to international and human rights laws that disadvantage its own citizens. The Epping hotel protests — complete with the Home Office’s recourse to legal appeals — illustrate the point. No doubt the legal complexities are real, as David McGrogan rightly pointed out in these pages, but such manoeuvres only pour petrol on an already combustible national mood.

One is left to wonder whether Britain’s Labour Party, now so hopelessly enthralled by socially progressive ideology, will ever rediscover the ability to represent anything resembling national sentiment — or whether it will, like the Conservatives, simply perfect the art of political self-evisceration.

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Retired UK Police Superintendent Investigated for “Dead-Naming” Trans Activist Online

A retired police superintendent in the UK says she was targeted by her former force after using the name “Fred” in reference to transgender activist Freda Wallace in several social media posts, a move that triggered a police visit to her home and a potential criminal investigation.

Cathy Larkman, who served for over three decades with South Wales Police, said the visit came after she made remarks online about Wallace, including posts on platform X that read, “Fred blocked me” and “Fred, put that drink down.”

The posts were part of an ongoing public conversation around strip-searching policies, where Larkman voiced opposition to allowing transgender women to conduct searches on female detainees.

Although Larkman wasn’t home when officers came to her door, she later learned the visit was related to allegations of “malicious communications.”

The complaint was her use of Wallace’s former name, a practice often referred to as “dead-naming” by gender activists.

A social media account titled SEEN Police Official Open Public Network confirmed a complaint had been filed.

According to The Telegraph, the individual believed to have made the report is Lynsay Watson, a transgender former police officer known for encouraging law enforcement to criminally pursue people who challenge gender ideology. Watson was dismissed from Leicestershire Police in 2023 for gross misconduct.

Larkman’s situation follows a similar incident involving Father Ted writer Graham Linehan, who was arrested by armed officers at Heathrow Airport days earlier over a series of posts.

Raising concerns about what she describes as growing ideological pressure within the policing system, Larkman accused the institution of serving activist agendas instead of the public interest. “The police service keeps demonstrating that it is ideologically captured from the top down. It is failing the public,” she said.

Britain’s free speech environment is deteriorating rapidly under the weight of expansive censorship laws, regulatory overreach, and state-sanctioned content control.

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The Nuclear Waste Problem Haunting UK Energy Expansion

  • Effective nuclear waste management is a critical global challenge, particularly for countries like the UK looking to expand their nuclear power sectors.
  • The UK has a substantial amount of existing radioactive waste and is struggling to implement a long-term disposal solution, with the proposed underground geological disposal facility facing significant hurdles and cost concerns.
  • Public and local community pushback against potential nuclear waste sites further complicates the development of new disposal facilities, making finding a solution an ongoing and difficult process.

One of the biggest hurdles to expanding the global nuclear power sector is the concern over how best to manage nuclear waste.

While some believe they have found sustainable solutions to dispose of nuclear waste, there is still widespread debate around how safe these methods are and the potential long-term impact of waste disposal and storage.

In the United Kingdom, the government has put nuclear power back on the agenda, after decades with no new nuclear developments; however, managing nuclear waste continues to be a major barrier to development. 

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New Artwork by British Street Artist Banksy Appears on the Wall of Royal Courts of Justice, in London – Is Immediately Covered Up, as Police Weigh Charges of ‘Criminal Damage’

The Met Police is doing the work of promoting the new Banksy.

For decades, the pseudonymous street artist Banksy, whose real identity remains unconfirmed, has thrived on controversy – and with his last mural artwork, things aren’t any different.

The new Banksy shows a judge hitting a fallen protester with his gavel, and was painted on the front wall of the Royal Courts of Justice in London.

The image was rapidly covered up by British officials.

Daily Mail reported:

“Security guards were seen patrolling in front of a screen concealing the mural now confirmed as being by the guerilla graffiti artist as his latest creation.

He shared an image of it on his Instagram page, after it was stenciled on an external wall of the Queen’s Building but swiftly hidden by large sheets of black plastic and two metal barriers.”

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Why “Don’t Let America Become the UK” Has Become a Warning for Americans

Many American conservatives are saying “don’t let America become the UK.” The reasons are well documented: unbridled illegal immigration, high levels of legal immigration and asylum seeking, and rising crime including rape, sexual harassment, mugging, stabbing, assaults, break-ins, theft, and sexual grooming of minors.

Housing and rental price spikes, unemployment, wage suppression, heavier burdens on taxpayers and public finances, and benefits paid to illegals, asylum seekers, and immigrants—many living fully or partially on welfare, add to the tax burden on citizens. Immigrants are also demanding that crosses be removed from churches and that the British flag be removed from public places. There is also the rise of Sharia councils creating a parallel legal system.

Protests have erupted that suppress British freedoms and values, some openly supporting Hamas, Iran, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, with calls for death to Britain. Conservatives also highlight bans on public preaching of the Christian gospel, hate crime laws used to arrest citizens for Facebook posts criticizing immigration or crime, and arrests for displaying the British flag.

Muslims now hold key political positions, including Sadiq Khan as Mayor of London (2016-present) and Shabana Mahmood as Justice Secretary in the UK Cabinet (2024-present). Humza Yousaf, of Pakistani heritage, served as Scotland’s First Minister from March 2023 to May 2024 before resigning. Additionally, 25 Muslim MPs were elected in the 2024 general election, making up almost 4% of the total 650 MP.

Immigration numbers reveal the same upward trend. Small-boat arrivals climbed from 28,526 in 2021 to about 38,000 in 2024, accounting for 86 percent of irregular entries (British government term for illegals). Total irregular arrivals rose from 38,600 in 2024 to about 44,000 in 2025, a 14 percent increase. Asylum claims nearly doubled since 2021, reaching 93,000 in 2023 and 109,000 in 2024, the highest since 2002.

Mainstream media, with its extreme liberal bias, often suppresses or misrepresents the numbers, while authorities in some jurisdictions falsify or reclassify crimes to make it appear that crime rates are dropping. This happens in the UK just as it does in the U.S. Media outlets claimed Trump was wrong when he said Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York had extremely high crime, although any sane person knew the crime rate, particularly murder and violent crime, was high, and citizen watchdog agencies along with primary source data supported the claims of higher crime rates.

UK crime data shows a decided increase since 2020. Sexual offences totaled 163,244 in 2020 and rose to 209,556 in 2025, the highest on record. Knife crime was just under 49,000 incidents in 2023/24 and rose to about 50,500 in 2024. London knife offences jumped from 12,786 in 2022/23 to 16,344 in 2024/2025. Knife homicides were 244 in 2022/23, and rose to 262 in 2023/24.

And for the privilege of these rising crime rates, UK taxpayers are footing staggering bills. The Home Office spent $5.9 billion on asylum in 2023–24, with another $8.0 billion projected for 2024–25. Welfare payments to non-UK nationals reached $9.4 billion, the equivalent of 1.26 million non-citizens collecting checks.

Asylum seekers get support while claims are processed, refugees receive full access once status is granted, legal immigrants qualify after residency, and EU settled status holders enjoy the same. Nearly $10 billion annually goes to foreign nationals.

Education adds another hidden cost. In 2023/24, 1.7 million pupils in England’s schools used English as an Additional Language, 20.8 percent of all students and up to 37 percent in some districts. With average per-pupil funding at $7,500, taxpayers spend $12.8 billion annually, plus $1.0–2.4 billion in language support, for a total of $13.8–15.0 billion.

This excludes translation services, special education, smaller class sizes, and new school construction in high-immigration areas. These costs are buried in the education budget, while the government promotes fee-paying international university students as an economic benefit.

Healthcare is another manipulated figure. The government estimates $1,295 per migrant annually. At least 1.5 million non-UK nationals receive free NHS care, including asylum seekers in hotels, refused applicants, dependents, and 1.26 million Universal Credit claimants, bringing the cost to $1.9 billion.

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UK’s Health Minister Stephen Kinnock claims vaccines are 100% safe. So, here’s my challenge to him

UK Health Minister Stephen Kinnock MP claims vaccines are 100% safe.  This claim has prompted a challenge from Dr. Vernon Coleman.

Dr. Coleman challenges Stephen Kinnock to a live, national television debate on the safety and effectiveness of vaccines, including the covid-19 vaccine.  “He can bring as many advisors as can be fitted into the studio.  And I will argue that he is wrong. Just by myself,” Dr. Colman says.

Britain’s Health Minister, Stephen Kinnock MP, has allegedly told the BBC that the Government was concerned about vaccine uptake and hesitancy, which he said had increased after the covid-19 “pandemic.” He said campaigns explaining “the benefit of getting vaccinated and the fact that this is 100% safe would be brought forward as the Government sought to win this battle against the conspiracy theorists.”

He said the Government was also committed to combating disinformation and conspiracy theories about vaccines on social media.

“It’s our job as the government, and everybody else out there that is on the side of common sense and reason, to make this case and to win this battle against the conspiracy theorists, and misinformers and disinformers out there who need to be dealt with and need to be silenced,” Kinnock added.

Did Kinnock really say that?

Now, I’ve been studying vaccines for over 50 years and my conclusion is that to say that any vaccine is 100% safe is like saying bombs never kill people or that no one has been killed in Gaza.

I suppose it all depends on how you define “safe” but I would argue that there isn’t a vaccine in the world which is 100% safe – though this isn’t the first time that such an absurd claim has been made on the BBC. (To be clear, my dictionary defines safe as “not likely to cause or lead to harm.”)

The big question is: “How does Mr Kinnock explain why governments around the world have paid out billions of dollars to families of vaccine-damaged patients?”

And why does his government pay out huge sums of money to those who have been damaged by vaccines if vaccines are 100% safe?

And what’s all this about “silencing” people?

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Here Are Three Ways Americans Can Fight The U.K.’s Orwellian Attempts To Suppress Free Speech

Yesterday, the news came that Graham Linehan was arrested by five police officers the moment he stepped off a plane at Heathrow. Though he’s less well-known in America, Linehan is an Irish comic genius who created two of the most beloved U.K. sitcoms of the last 30 years — Father Ted and The I.T. Crowd. Linehan’s supposed crime is that he has been a persistent online critic of the transgender movement, and his arrest was over three tweets, which you can read here. Nothing about his tweets are debatable as a matter of free speech or incitement. In a sane society, they would all be protected.

For a while now, people have been screaming that the U.K. has transformed itself into an Orwellian police state. The U.K. now arrests as many as 30 people a day for online speech, and like what happened to Linehan, much of what is punished is benign by First Amendment standards.

Yet, the punishments handed down are quite severe, and there are numerous examples of how political U.K. courts operate according two a two-tiered system of justice. One woman got a 31-month sentence for an offensive tweet that was deleted after four hours; the same judge gave a 21-month sentence to someone who participated in a violent mob that tried to kick down the door of a pub looking to possibly attack the people inside.

Still, arresting someone as high profile as Linehan marks a significant escalation. Not because Linehan’s rights deserve more deference than any normal U.K. citizen that’s been arrested for speech, but because the U.K. government is openly inviting the enormous amount of criticism that will come with such a high profile arrest. Just last year, persistent transgender critic J.K. Rowling dared the Scottish police to arrest her under the country’s new and laughably expansive hate crime law. Scottish authorities demurred, not because they couldn’t punish her under the law, but because presumably they realized the blowback that came with arresting one of the most beloved authors of the last century would be too great.

Still, I hope the Linehan arrest shines a harsh spotlight on the U.K.’s increasingly draconian speech laws and leads to much needed reforms — here is a good primer on where the U.K. should start. But for now, the incident should lead those of us in America to act on some inescapable conclusions to help restore freedom of speech in the U.K. and elsewhere.

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