Tag: united kingdom

Veiled Threat: Possessing Pics of Muslim Women Without Hijabs Should Be Made a Crime, UK Lawmakers Say

Leftist lawmakers in Britain have argued that being in possession of pictures of Muslim women without their hijab headscarves should be a crime akin to child pornography.

Impending legislation originally intended to crack down on revenge porn should include the prohibition against having images of Muslim women’s faces without their hijab if the photos were taken without their express permission.

The Women and Equalities Committee in the House of Commons argued that such pictures should be considered “non-consensual intimate images” and, therefore, come with similar penalties as possessing child pornography, including lengthy prison sentences, the Daily Mail reported.

If government ministers sign off the committee’s proposal, it could become a crime in Britain as early as this year.

At present, the law defines “intimate” images as those in which a person is seen fully or partially nude, is engaging in a sexual act, or is seen using the bathroom.

Responding to the call to criminalise some pictures of Muslim women without hijabs, David Spencer of the Policy Exchange think tank said: “Tackling the problem of ‘revenge porn’ is clearly important – but expanding this to so-called ‘culturally intimate’ images risks extending the criminal law too far.

“The police cannot be expected to wade into so-called ‘cultural’ issues when officers are already struggling to deal with the volume of stabbings, sexual assaults and thefts that occur every day. The Government should be cautious about creating yet more criminal offences.”

Keep reading

Who is Peter Mandelson, Starmer’s pick for U.S. ambassador?

Peter Mandelson, Keir Starmer’s choice for British ambassador to the US, co-owns a business that helps companies “see opportunities in politics, regulation and public policy”.

Mandelson, who has a long history of favouring corporations in often scandalous situations, looks set to keep his shares in this company while supposedly representing the UK.

He founded his lobbying company, Global Counsel, in 2010, creating a lucrative business from his political contacts built up while a minister under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. 

Mandelson stood down from Global Counsel’s board last year – probably in preparation for a post with Starmer’s government – but remains one of the two largest shareholders of the firm, owning over 25% of the company. 

According to Companies House he is a “person with significant control” of Global Counsel. 

I asked the Foreign Office if Mandelson must give up his ownership of Global Counsel to be ambassador. 

They did not answer directly, telling me: “There is an established regime in place for the management of interests held by ambassadors or High Commissioners. This ensures that steps are taken to avoid or mitigate any actual, potential or perceived conflicts of interest.”

The Foreign Office would not give any more detail of this “regime”.

Keep reading

Pensioner, 93, who has dementia has been convicted of not insuring her car… despite her living in a care home and no longer having a driving licence

An elderly woman with dementia has been convicted of failing to insure her car – despite her living in a nursing home and no longer having a driving licence. 

The pensioner, 93, from Dudley in the West Midlands, was prosecuted by DVLA in September last year when they found out that the insurance on her Ford had expired.

In a handwritten letter the woman explained that due to her diagnosis she had not driven since November 10, 2023, but the vehicle had been ‘kept on the drive’ during this period, the Evening Standard reports.

She admitted to having ‘overlooked’ making a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN) for the motor, but said her disease had caused her to hide mail – leaving her family unable to access her letters.

The woman also revealed she had been recovering from a stroke in a care home since November.

As prosecutor DVLA could have decided to withdraw the prosecution on the grounds it wasn’t in the public interest.

But, due to the fast-track design of the Single Justice Procedure, this was not considered.

The pensioner was convicted on a guilty plea at Taunton magistrates court last month. 

She was given a six-month conditional discharge, meaning no financial penalty, but still has a criminal conviction.

Keep reading

British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles are useless in Ukraine now President Trump has blocked US intelligence from being shared with allies

Britain’s long-range Storm Shadow missiles are feared to have been rendered useless in Ukraine after President Donald Trump blocked US intelligence from being shared with allies.

In a huge blow to Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against Russia’s invasion, Trump froze American military aid to Kyiv before suspending intelligence sharing with President Volodymr Zelensky’s war-torn country.

The UK, which has vowed to stand by Ukraine throughout the three-year war, is among the countries who have been banned from sharing Washington intelligence with Kyiv.

It comes amid an ongoing transatlantic rift after Trump and Zelensky dramatically clashed in a heated Oval Office row last week, sparking a wave of support for Ukraine from European allies including Britain.

MailOnline revealed on Tuesday that UK intelligence agencies and military outlets have received an order expressly forbidding the sharing of US-generated intelligence, previously known as ‘Rel UKR’ – short for Releasable to Ukraine’. 

The impact is likely to have major ramifications as British-supplied Storm Shadow cruise missiles, a critical asset used inside Russia’s Kursk region by Ukraine, require US data to hit their targets. MailOnline has contacted the MoD for comment.

Storm Shadow missiles, jointly developed by the UK and France who call it Scalp, are precision-guided munitions used for deep-strike missions as they can hit targets up to 250km (155miles) away. 

The effective missiles, believed to cost roughly £2million each, allow Ukraine to penetrate hardened bunkers and ammunition stores and down critical infrastructure, command centres and logistics hubs at huge ranges.

Keep reading

Romania – The first “post-election” democracy?

In December 2024, a Romanian court cancelled the second round of the planned Presidential election and annulled the completed first round, citing (totally theoretical) “Russian interference”.

This caused massive protests in Romania, as you can imagine. The first round had been won by right winger Călin Georgescu following a social media-based campaign, and he was predicted to quite easily win the second round as well.

The Romanian opposition – denied a likely victory – took their case to the European Court of Human Rights.

Then, earlier today, the ECHR threw the case out without even hearing it. Apparently, the Romanian courts were perfectly within their rights to simply indefinitely postpone their election on the basis of unproven allegations, and all those people who already voted and wanted to vote again can just go to hell.

This is the ECHR, which lectures the world on rights and democratic norms on the regular.

And everyone is apparently just fine with it. It’s crazy.

Imagine the outrage in the media if Putin or Trump had suddenly cancelled elections they looked like losing because “they weren’t going to be fair”.

Anyway, now Călin Georgescu has been arrested, and his supporters are taking to the streets, while  the Romanian government is set to crack down on “conspiracy theories” and other “misinformation”.

This anti-election narrative is growing outside of Romania too.

Ukraine, of course, hasn’t had any elections in years either. They also outlawed certain political parties, religions and television channels. Meanwhile, laundering billions of dollars/pounds/euros through the Ukrainian government to boost the bottom line of arms manufacturers is considered “defending democracy”.

Last month, former EU chairman Thierry Breton remarked that they had already had to cancel the Romanian elections, and might have to do the same in Germany. (As it happens the “right side” won in Germany, so I guess that election was fair).

To a smaller extent, nine local elections across the UK have been “postponed” for at least a year for unknown reasons.

Keep reading

The unusual psychic technique used by the MoD to try and find Osama bin Laden

An expert on UFOs has lifted the lid on an unusual ‘psychic spying’ technique used by the Ministry of Defence in the wake of 9/11.

Remote viewers claim to be able to view distant objects, people or events they have never seen before using the powers of their mind – and the technique was used by US Army Intelligence for decades.

Joe McMoneagle, known as ‘Remote Viewer Number 1’ by the CIA, took part in remote viewing between 1978 and 1995 – and he recently appeared on a podcast where he said he had seen evidence of an ancient civilisation living on Mars.

 Speaking to the American Alchemy podcast he said he saw ‘very tall, thin’ people wearing ‘strange clothing’, hiding in chambers in a huge pyramid structure from a storm raging on the planet’s surface.

He theorised a ‘big object passed through our solar system’ that stripped the atmosphere from Mars, which caused alien life on the planet to go extinct.

The CIA’s remote viewing project was cancelled and declassified in 1995 after a report concluded it had ‘failed to produce actionable intelligence’.

But despite this, the British military has also tried to use remote viewing – likely with Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda as the intended targets.

Nick Pope, who investigated UFOs for the Ministry of Defence (MoD), told Metro that Joe McMoneagle’s claims would be ‘interesting if true’.

And he discussed the use of remote viewing, described as a ‘low probability high consequence situation’, in modern times.

‘While some scientists believe there was – and may still be – microbial life on Mars, it’s much less likely that there was ever a civilization there,’ Nick told Metro.

‘But I can’t rule it out, and I’d love it to be true. It would be the greatest discovery of all time, and would fundamentally change our view of the universe.’

Giving some insight into the US military’s use of remote viewing, he explained: ‘It’s a proven fact that some parts of the US military and the intelligence community ran so-called remote viewing programmes.

Keep reading

Starmer’s Summit Gives Birth To A Mouse – It’s Stillborn.

A mountain was in labour, uttering immense groans,
and on earth there was very great expectation.
But it gave birth to a mouse. This has been written for you,
who, though you threaten great things, accomplish nothing.”

Sundays meeting of selected European leaders in London reminded me of the above Aesop fable.

Prime Minister Starmer’s summit, called for in haste, has achieved nothing:

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer rallied his European counterparts Sunday to shore up their borders and throw their full weight behind Ukraine as he announced outlines of a plan to end Russia’s war.
…
Starmer said he had worked with France and Ukraine on a plan to end the war and that the group of leaders — mostly from Europe — had agreed on four things.

The steps toward peace would:

  • keep aid flowing to Kyiv and maintain economic pressure on Russia to strengthen Ukraine’s hand;
  • make sure Ukraine is at the bargaining table and any peace deal must ensure its sovereignty and security; and
  • continue to arm Ukraine to deter future invasion.
  • Finally, Starmer said they would develop a “coalition of the willing” to defend Ukraine and guarantee the peace.

“Not every nation will feel able to contribute but that can’t mean that we sit back,” he said. “Instead, those willing will intensify planning now with real urgency. The U.K. is prepared to back this with boots on the ground and planes in the air, together with others.”

It is far from certain whether Russian President Vladimir Putin will accept any such plan, which Starmer said would require strong U.S. backing. He did not specify what that meant, though he told the BBC before the summit that there were “intense discussions” to get a security guarantee from the U.S.

“If there is to be a deal, if there is to be a stopping of the fighting, then that agreement has to be defended, because the worst of all outcomes is that there is a temporary pause and then Putin comes again,” Starmer said.

Starmer said he will later bring a more formal plan to the U.S. and work with Trump.

That mouse the mountain gave birth to is stillborn:

– Trump has made clear that the U.S. will not agree to back any European forces in Ukraine.

– Zelenski, unless under more pressure, will not agree to a ceasefire without U.S. backing.

– Russia does not agree to any temporary ceasefire. It wants a new permanent security architecture for Europe and beyond.

– Russia does not agree to forces from NATO countries in Ukraine. It started the war to prevent that to happen.

– Russia will not agree to a rearming of Ukraine. Its declared aim is to ‘de-militarize’ the country.

– Russia is winning the war. Neither Starmer nor Europe have the means to prevent it from doing that.

Keep reading

Chancellor set to cut welfare spending by billions

The chancellor has earmarked several billion pounds in draft spending cuts to welfare and other government departments ahead of the Spring Statement.

The Treasury will put the proposed cuts to the government’s official forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), on Wednesday amid expectations the chancellor’s financial buffer has been wiped out.

Sources said “the world has changed” since Rachel Reeves’s Budget last October, when the OBR indicated she had £9.9bn available to spend against her self-imposed borrowing rules.

The OBR’s forecast is likely to see that disappear because of global factors such as trade tariffs, as well as higher inflation and borrowing costs in the UK.

The Treasury will on Wednesday inform the OBR of its “major measures” -essentially changes to tax and spending in order to meet the chancellor’s self-imposed rules on borrowing money.

The government has committed to get debt falling as a share of the economy during the course of this Parliament, and to only borrow to fund investment, not to cover day-to-day spending.

Such rules, put in place by most governments in wealthy nations, are designed to maintain credibility with financial markets. Reeves has repeatedly said her rules are “non-negotiable”.

The spending cuts drafted by the Treasury will help plug the gap that has emerged in recent months, ahead of the OBR publishing its forecast and Reeves giving a statement on 26 March.

Keep reading

Government Advisor Warns UK Is Heading For Civil War

A top academic and government advisor warns that the UK will experience a civil war within the next five years caused by the “destruction of legitimacy” brought about by the government’s failure to secure the border.

Professor David Betz made the comments during a podcast appearance with journalist and author Louise Perry.

Betz teaches at Kings College London and has advised or worked with the UK MOD and GCHQ as well as being a Senior Fellow of the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

The professor, who describes himself as a “classic member of the establishment,” told Perry that British society is now “explosively configured” to suffer mass unrest.

He said the fallout began with the fracture of the social contract after the political establishment in the UK tried to subvert the Brexit vote.

Subsequent years have brought about a “destruction of legitimacy” as a result of successive governments’ open border policy and their inability to protect children from grooming gangs, in addition to a two-tier justice system presided over by a highly-politicised judiciary.

Keep reading

UN demands answers from UK on terror law abuse

As the British state harasses and arrests a growing number of activists and dissident journalists, including the author of this piece, UN rapporteurs delivered a forceful letter of protest to London condemning its abuse of counter-terror legislation.

In December 2024, a quartet of UN rapporteurs focused on “peaceful assembly and of association” and the “right to privacy” delivered a strongly-worded letter to the British government. Expressing grave concerns about the potential “misapplication of counter-terrorism laws” to arrest, detain, interrogate and surveil dissident activists and journalists, including The Grayzone’s Kit Klarenberg, they demanded clarity on a number of serious issues. Given 60 days to respond, London remained suspiciously silent.

As a result, the UN’s correspondence with the British government has now been made public. The rapporteurs were clearly disturbed by reports of Schedule 7 of the 2000 Terrorism Act, and Schedule 3 of the 2019 Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act, which covers “hostile” state threats, “being used to examine and obtain data from journalists and activists Johanna Ross, John Laughland, Kit Klarenberg, Craig Murray and Richard Medhurst in circumstances where they appear to have no credible connection to ‘terrorist’ or ‘hostile’ activity.”

While awaiting a reply that never came, the UN “urged” British authorities to undertake “interim measures” to prevent any recurrence of potential human rights breaches under counter-terror legislation, and “ensure the accountability” of anyone responsible for “alleged violations.” Evidently undeterred by pressure from the UN, Britain has continued to escalate its war on dissidents. 

Since the UN issued its letter of protest, British activists and journalists have since been arrested, raided, and prosecuted, including Asa Winstanley, Tony Greenstein, Sarah Wilkinson, Palestine Action cofounder Richard Barnard, and academic David Miller.

The UN letter focused on how “powers under counter-terrorism legislation have been used on multiple occasions to examine, detain, and arrest journalists and activists, particularly at the UK border.” Individuals “who are critical of Western foreign policy in the context of the conflict in the Middle East and the Russia-Ukraine war are especially affected by the reported misuse of these powers,” the rapporteurs wrote. 

Ominously, the UN rapporteurs suggested this could amount to “over-use [or] misuse” of British counter-terrorism legislation “to target legitimate freedom of expression and opinion, including public interest media reporting, and related freedoms of peaceful assembly and association, and political dissent or activism.”

Keep reading