Kemi Badenoch has a brilliant idea – will Rachel Reeves steal it?

It is what they call fox hunting season in Westminster, when parties race to steal their opponents’ best policies. To “shoot the fox” is to spoil the hunters’ fun. It is a brutal and ruthless sport – and so far, Kemi Badenoch is winning. Her “fox” – her pledge to abolish stamp duty – was a theatrical coup that sent Conservatives home from their conference happier than they had any right to be.

And it makes a difficult Budget for Rachel Reeves even harder. When we describe this Budget as “difficult”, we are using the word in its high mandarin sense, by which a senior civil servant might advise a minister that the government may soon be entering a terminal crisis.

Reeves is going to have to raise taxes substantially, having said last year that she wouldn’t, and cut spending plans – if there is anything that Labour MPs will let her cut.

Now Badenoch offers a tax cut which is even more popular than most, paid for by stopping the growth in welfare spending, which is also popular, except with Labour MPs.

It does not alter the arithmetic facing the chancellor, but it shifts the politics further against her. The taxation of housing can move the political market. George Osborne spooked Gordon Brown in 2007, proposing in his Tory conference speech to raise the threshold for inheritance tax on the family home. Alistair Darling had to respond with a smaller tax cut in his Budget, but Brown was put off an early election – a decision that he handled so badly that he never really recovered.

Badenoch’s policy will also give her something to say when she replies to the Budget, a task that traditionally falls to the leader of the opposition, and which is one of the most testing duties that the “worst job in politics” demands.

It will dismay and divide the Labour side of the Commons. Labour MPs would love to abolish stamp duty. Even hard-headed Labourites, who realise that taxes have to go up, and that more borrowing is a Truss-like fantasy that would be a V-sign to the bond markets – even they would rather raise taxes on almost anything else.

They know, because Paul Johnson, recently of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, devoted a great deal of his time there to explaining it, that stamp duty is a terrible tax. It gums up the housing market, trapping people in houses that are too big or too small, restricting labour mobility and suppressing economic activity. “Movers, builders, decorators. Flat pack furniture and DIY. Trips to Next, John Lewis and IKEA,” as Badenoch put it.

So how can Reeves respond? She could do something like Darling did 18 years ago. She could cut stamp duty as a step towards abolishing it altogether at some date in the distant future. Unfortunately for her, she would have to replace it with another tax on property, because there is no way that she can cut spending enough to avoid having to put taxes up overall. (The Tories’ “£47bn a year” of spending cuts is mostly fiction, only slightly more credible than Nigel Farage’s plans, which are not just fiction but fantasy fiction.)

I assume that one of Reeves’s options is a mansion tax, an annual levy on more expensive properties that would be like a council tax surcharge. Badenoch’s plan may tempt Reeves to increase such a tax and lower the house price at which it starts – in order to pay for a stamp duty cut.

If so, it would be an improvement in the tax system and a useful contribution to social justice. An annual charge on the value of people’s homes is a much more efficient way of raising money than a tax on moving house. At the moment, council tax is a bad one, based on out-of-date valuations and unfairly hitting cheap homes more heavily than expensive ones.

Badenoch’s clever policy may have rescued her leadership for the moment, although it may not save her or the Tory party in the end. But if she forces Reeves to steal part of the policy, Badenoch will have set the government’s agenda and delivered a better tax system for the country.

If the Tories truly believe in country before party, they should be proud of her.

Madeleine McCann’s sister ‘always knew stalker wasn’t her’

Madeleine McCann’s sister has told a court she “always knew” that a woman who claimed to be the missing girl was not her sibling.

Amelie McCann received a string of messages from Julia Wandelt in which she insisted she was her missing sister, who vanished without a trace from a holiday resort in Portugal in 2007.

Ms Wandelt, 24, from Lubin in south-west Poland, is accused of stalking Kate and Gerry McCann, causing serious alarm or distress between June 2022 and February this year.

Giving evidence remotely at Leicester Crown Court, Amelie said it was “creepy” and “distressing” when Ms Wandelt sent her messages detailing apparent flashbacks she had from their childhood.

These included requests for a DNA test and alleged recollections from their childhood such as playing Ring-A-Ring-A-Roses with other children.

Ms Wandelt also sent images of herself which were “clearly altered or edited … to make it look more like her”, the court heard.

“It is quite disturbing that she’s coming up with these supposed memories even though she’s not Madeleine,” Amelie said.

However, she said she did not want Ms Wandelt – who denies stalking – to get a DNA test.

Asked why, Madeleine’s sister continued: “Because I always knew that she wasn’t Madeleine, so I didn’t need to do one and the, not guidance, but the people around me didn’t think it was appropriate either for her to get a DNA test.”

There was a “sound of desperation” in the messages, Amelie said, noting she blocked her on a number of online platforms.

Asked how the messages made her feel, she added: “It makes me feel quite uncomfortable because it is quite creepy she is giving those details and trying to play with my emotions.”

The daughter told jurors the alleged stalking “took a toll” on her mother, who was targeted the most. She said Kate McCann was “stressed and on edge” after Ms Wandelt visited her family home, calling it an “invasion” of their privacy.

“It definitely took a toll on her and her wellbeing because all the time her phone would be going off and it would be Julia,” she added.

“It’s upsetting when someone’s begging you to believe them and playing with your emotions to the point you are questioning yourself and doubting yourself.

“My mum really struggled with that – her saying ‘I’m your daughter’.”

Amelie’s twin brother Sean said he found Ms Wandelt’s claims “hurtful” and “deeply disturbing”.

“I find it disrespectful that she’s making this claim and getting a lot of attention and support for it,” he said in a statement read to the court.

“The fact Julia has no regard for how we feel about her claims is hurtful.”

He added: “I do not believe she is my sister. The fact Julia is doing this has caused me a great deal of stress and I find it deeply disturbing.”

Prosecutors allege Ms Wandelt repeatedly contacted Madeleine’s parents in a string of messages and phone calls and turned up at their address, on one occasion begging “please don’t give up on your daughter”.

She is accused of bombarding the mother with 60 calls and messages in one day, the trial heard.

Kate and Gerry each gave emotional evidence from behind a curtain on Wednesday as they spoke of impact of the “incessant” contact from Ms Wandelt.

The 24-year-old called Kate “mum” when she turned up at their home in Rothley, Leicestershire, in December last year with Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, the court heard.

Wandelt sobbed and shouted “why are you doing this to me?” from the dock as the mother told jurors about the distressing confrontation.

Gerry claimed the alleged stalking had damaged efforts to find his daughter, adding: “It has many effects – we don’t know what happened to Madeleine, there’s no evidence to say she’s dead.

“We really hope, and we know it’s only a glimmer, that Madeleine is alive. When so many people claim to be our missing daughter, it inevitably pulls your heartstrings, but there’s wider effect that is more damaging.”

Opening the crown’s case on Monday, prosecutor Michael Duck KC told jurors that there was “unequivocal scientific evidence” that Ms Wandelt has no familial link to the McCanns.

Ms Wandelt and Ms Spragg, of Caerau Court Road in Caerau, Cardiff, both deny stalking the parents.

The trial continues.

China is ruthless with foreign spies and is laughing at Starmer now

Keir Starmer faces a test of nerve over Britain’s handling of alleged Chinese espionage. The prime minister’s instinct for caution – his preference for tidy processes and calm diplomacy – may serve him well in domestic politics, but when it comes to China’s global gamesmanship, it looks dangerously like weakness.

Beijing’s leaders, by contrast, have no qualms about playing hardball – never more so when it comes to accusing people of spying. China’s Communist Party doesn’t flinch at diplomatic fallout or trade reprisals. Indeed, espionage cases comprise one of the sharpest tools in its foreign policy kit. Over the past decade, dozens of foreigners – businesspeople, pastors, journalists – have been caught up in opaque prosecutions under the country’s national security laws.

This isn’t a bug in China’s system. It’s a feature. Accusations are vague, trials are secret, evidence is flimsy or non-existent. Conditions in detention are harsh, and the notion of presumption of innocence is alien. China doesn’t live under the rule of law: it rules by law, wielding legislation as a hammer of state control.

Beijing has turned hostage diplomacy into an art form. In December 2018, Chinese authorities detained two Canadians, former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor, within days of Canada’s arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at the request of US authorities. The message was unambiguous: two innocents would pay the price until Beijing got what it wanted.

For more than 1,000 days, the “two Michaels”, as they became known, endured grim conditions – much of the time in solitary confinement – while Meng awaited extradition in comfort, shopping in Vancouver boutiques. When Canada finally brokered a deal with China and the US freed Meng, the Canadians were released. Few episodes so clearly expose China’s readiness to use human lives as bargaining chips.

The regime regularly targets figures both obscure and prominent. The arrests broadcast a clear warning: cross us, and we will destroy you.

Take the case of Cheng Lei, a respected Australian anchor for the Chinese state-run broadcaster CGTN, who was accused of sharing an embargoed news release minutes early. That trivial slip was twisted into a state secrets offence. She spent three years behind bars. Beijing never disclosed what secret she was alleged to have betrayed. Bloomberg journalist Haze Fan endured a similar ordeal: she was detained for more than a year before being released and quietly forced out of the country.

No case better captures the moral rot at the heart of China’s “justice” system than that of Jimmy Lai, the Hong Kong media tycoon and pro-democracy activist. Lai has spent most of the past five years in solitary confinement on national security charges. His real offence was publishing Apple Daily, the city’s most outspoken pro-freedom newspaper, and meeting with US officials to plead for sanctions to be imposed on human-rights abusers.

Lai became a British citizen in 1992, moved by the ideals of a country that, as a colonial power, had nurtured Hong Kong’s freedoms. Yet during the more than 1,700 days he has spent in prison, no British diplomat has yet been permitted to visit him. Beijing insists, absurdly and illegally, that he is Chinese, because he was born on the mainland. London’s polite requests for consular access have been met with silence – and there’s been little more than tepid protest from the Foreign Office.

Starmer’s government says securing Lai’s release is a priority. But words are not enough. Compare Britain’s reticence with the ferocity of Beijing’s defence of Meng. China leaned on its entire diplomatic machine to free her. Britain, by contrast, appears to have mislaid its moral compass – and its courage.

China has also weaponised its courts to intervene in business disputes. Irish executive Richard O’Halloran travelled to Shanghai in 2019 to settle a commercial matter and was hit with an exit ban that kept him in China for nearly three years. He blames Dublin’s timid “quiet diplomacy” for prolonging his ordeal.

British consultant Peter Humphrey and his American wife Yingzeng Yu were sentenced to two and a half years and two years respectively on spurious national security charges after investigating a well-connected Chinese businesswoman. Humphrey later told the US Congress that other prisoners were instructed not to speak to him after he was branded a British “spy”. The couple’s only real mistake, he said, was offending someone powerful.

The list of victims goes on, and increasingly, China’s reach extends onto British soil. Hong Kong authorities have issued arrest warrants and £100,000 bounties for exiled activists living in the UK, including my 20-year-old colleague Chloe Cheung. The territory’s chief executive, John Lee, has threatened to hunt them like “street rats”. These are threats against people exercising free speech in Britain – yet the UK government’s response has been mild.

No one wants Britain to imitate China’s ruthless lawlessness. But it must stop mistaking civility for strategy. China respects strength, and scorns accommodation. Each concession is read not as goodwill, but as proof of weakness.

Xi Jinping and his wolf-warrior diplomats routinely recite a grievance narrative: the Opium Wars, the “century of humiliation”, Britain’s colonial sins. When London presses Beijing to honour the Sino-British Joint Declaration – the international treaty guaranteeing Hong Kong’s freedoms – China snaps back that Britain is clinging to a “colonial mindset”.

This is not a government that negotiates in good faith. It is a regime that sees international law as a tool to be used or ignored at will.

Britain’s own responses have been painfully cautious. When a senior Chinese diplomat, Zheng Xiyuan, dragged Hong Kong democracy protester Bob Chan into the Chinese consulate in Manchester in 2022, the footage was unequivocal. Zheng later boasted that he had simply been “doing his duty”. Yet instead of expelling him, the Foreign Office allowed him to leave quietly two months later.

It is precisely this instinct to de-escalate – to tidy away confrontation rather than confront it – that signals to Beijing that it can act with impunity.

Xi has made no secret of his worldview. The world, he says, is undergoing “profound changes unseen in a century”. The East is rising, the West declining. His project is to prove himself right. In his dog-eat-dog vision, power is what counts; moral scruples are for the weak.

Britain should respond not with imitation, but with confidence in its own strengths. China has secret prisons and sham trials. Britain has an independent judiciary, transparent courts, and a centuries-old commitment to liberty. Those are not quaint relics – they are the foundations of national resilience.

That means taking espionage seriously at home, pursuing prosecutions when warranted, and resisting the instinct to back down at the first diplomatic growl from Beijing. It means standing up for British citizens abroad, and for the activists in exile who embody the freedoms Hong Kong has lost.

If Starmer wants Britain to lead on the world stage, he must accept that engagement with China is not a dinner-party debate. It is a contest of will. Beijing has made that clear.

Britain does not need to mimic China’s ruthlessness – but it must rediscover its own resolve. Freedom, transparency, and justice are the weapons that no dictatorship can match. What’s missing is the courage to use them.

Less fear, more spine, please, Mr Starmer.

Mark L Clifford is president of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation and author of ‘The Troublemaker: How Jimmy Lai Became a Billionaire, Hong Kong’s Greatest Dissident, and China’s Most Feared Critic’

GP admits trying to kill mother’s partner with poisoned wine

A former GP who has been jailed for attempting to murder his mother’s partner with a fake Covid jab has admitted another plot to kill him using poisoned bottles of wine.

Thomas Kwan, who is already serving a 31 year sentence for the attempted murder of 73-year-old Patrick O’Hara, appeared at Newcastle Crown Court to admit a previous plan to kill him after setting up a fake wine club.

Kwan further admitted to administering a noxious substance to Torquil Gundlach, who also consumed some of the wine which was laced with thallium – a highly toxic metal.

The 54-year-old contacted Mr O’Hara via the fictitious Northern Wine and Drinks Tasting Gentlemen’s Club and sent him between 18 and 21 bottles, some of which were poisoned.

Mr O’Hara drank some of the bottles and gifted one to Mr Gundlach.

Prosecutor Peter Makepeace KC told the court two bottles contained poison and there was evidence that a third, which was laced with thallium, caused Mr O’Hara to fall ill.

The admission comes after last year the Sunderland-based GP was convicted of trying to kill Mr O’Hara in a separate plot that left the 73-year-old with a rare flesh-eating disease.

A judge described the January 2024 attack –which saw him enter his mother’s home wearing a disguise – as an “audacious plan to murder a man in plain sight” which was motivated by financial gain.

The judge said Kwan tricked his victim and his estranged mother using “good forgeries” of NHS letters, adding: “By your masquerading, you struck at the heart of public confidence in the health care profession.”

She said there was “no doubt” he plotted to kill Mr O’Hara for financial gain over the inheritance he felt entitled to.

“You knew that your mother had left the house at St Thomas Street to her children, but you also knew that she had changed her will to give Mr O’Hara a life interest in the house,” the judge said.

“By killing him you would have removed the obstacle which lay between you and your immediate recovery of your share in the property following your mother’s death in the event of her pre-deceasing him.”

Kwan, who was obsessed with money and developed a deep knowledge of poisons, planned his murder bid for months by writing fake letters, supposedly from the NHS, offering Mr O’Hara a home visit.

Disguised as a community nurse called Raj Patel, he used fake number plates and wore a long coat, a medical mask and tinted glasses as he told Mr O’Hara he needed a Covid booster.

The fake vaccination he administered caused intense pain, making it seem as though his arm was on fire.

Mr O’Hara needed weeks of hospital treatment after developing a flesh-eating disease which required plastic surgery. He said the attack left him “a shell of an individual”.

Police scoured CCTV and were able to track Kwan, still disguised as a nurse, back to a city centre hotel and then to his home in Ingleby Barwick, Teesside.

In his garage, officers discovered an array of dangerous chemicals which the GP had amassed. On his computer, they found instructions on how to make the chemical weapon ricin.

The wine plot spanned September 2022 to January 2024, Newcastle Crown Court heard.

Mr Makepeace KC said the wine club Kwan created “does not exist”. He sent Mr O’Hara a mixture of poisoned and uncontaminated bottles.

“Genuine bottles were sent to lure the victim into a sense of security,” he explained.

Kwan, who appeared via videolink from maximum security HMP Frankland, will be sentenced on 30 January.

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Norwegian nature: Enjoy wild, wonderful adventures on a safari-at-sea

Norway’s rugged coast is chock-full of natural beauty, dotted with steep fjords where the mountains meet the sea and teeming with all kinds of curious wildlife, from orcas, humpbacks, and over 80 species of seabirds to red foxes, reindeer, and otters. Norwegians are famous for their deep love of the outdoors, which even has its own word: friluftsliv. It helps that it is home to more than 150,000 lakes and is known for its dramatic fjord-fringed landscapes and shimmering glaciers. It’s also one of the best places to catch the technicolour magic of the Aurora Borealis.

What’s more, if you explore this breathtaking region on a Hurtigruten cruise, you’ll do so alongside the expert local Expedition Team, who have spent years traversing Norway’s rugged coastline. They are always on hand to provide engaging insights into the nature, wildlife, and culture you’ll encounter on every voyage. They go above and beyond to ensure you experience more than just the tourist hot spots. Each team member has their own area of expertise and hosts regular lectures for those who want to delve deeper into a specific interest. They also encourage you to join them on their hand-picked hikes and activities, which are at an additional cost and subject to availability but offer the chance to explore with those who know the area best.

Drawing on over 130 years of travel experience, Original and Signature Hurtigruten Voyages lead passengers along Norway’s dramatic Arctic coastline, showcasing its remarkable natural beauty in all its glory, with options to stop off in various locations along the way. As you sail between destinations, keep your eyes peeled for the abundance of wildlife that frequents the area. The coastline is a popular haunt for mammals like giant humpbacks, frolicking seals and playful porpoises.

During time spent on land, depending on your route, you might also come face-to-face with reindeer in the north or the elusive lynx, not to mention the flora that decorates the landscape in various seasons. Some routes stop at Mehamn, a traditional fishing town with only 800 inhabitants. From here, you can embark on an excursion to learn about the Sámi, an indigenous people from Europe’s northernmost region, known for reindeer herding, traditional handicrafts, and a deep connection to nature. Get to know the family, hear their stories and joik chanting, and try dried reindeer meat around a fire in a lavvo tent.

Vistas and voyages

There are many different journeys you can take, depending on what you want to get out of your cruise. Trace the historic Coastal Express route on one of their Original Voyages, Hurtigruten’s first and most iconic route, established in 1893 and often hailed as the world’s most beautiful voyage. You’ll cover 2,500 nautical miles and visit 34 ports, starting in Bergen, Norway’s second-largest city, where you can hop on a funicular to the summit of Mount Fløyen and soak up the incredible views of the city, the nearby fjords, and the surrounding mountains.

The North Cape Line Winter route is another popular cruise for nature lovers. This Signature Voyage adventure starts and finishes in Norway’s Capital, Oslo. The Signature Voyages take things up a notch, offering unmatched views of Norway’s best bits with more time to explore each stop. They’re also a hit with foodies, thanks to the all-inclusive option featuring award-winning restaurants and seasonal produce from Norway’s bountiful coastline.

Åndalsnes is also a favourite stop on the route, home to soaring mountains overlooking the surrounding town. It’s the ultimate hotspot for hikers, climbers and skiers thanks to its abundant accessible natural beauty. The Troll Wall is a highlight for adrenaline seekers here; this 1,000-metre vertical cliff in the Romsdalen valley boasts some of the most epic views from atop, including 360-degree vistas of Romsdalshorn, Åndalsnes town centre, and the Rauma River.

This route also takes you to The City of Northern Lights, Alta, where you can stand at the northernmost point in Europe, Cape Point in Honningsvåg – the perfect vantage point for those trying to catch this incredible natural phenomenon. Hurtigruten is so confident you’ll see the lights that they even offer a ‘Northern Lights Promise’: a free cruise if you don’t see them during the season (valid on 11-day plus voyages from 20th September to 31st March).

Many of the routes stop at Lofoten, an archipelago with immense peaks and fishing villages sandwiched between slopes. It’s not hard to see why this chain of islands is referred to as one of Norway’s most beautiful locations. Hiking opportunities abound here, and most trails lead to spectacular vistas, or if you prefer to stay on the water, you can hop in a kayak and enjoy a leisurely paddle.

Birdlife and beaches

Lofoten isn’t the only archipelago you’ll see on specific routes — keep an eye out for the Vega archipelago, a collection of around 6,500 islands, skerries, and islets. On Gardsøy Island, you’ll find a UNESCO World Heritage Centre with dedicated huts for local eider ducks to build their nests.

Journeying south along Norway’s west coast, many of the routes also take you past some of the country’s most famous fjords, including Hardangerfjord, measuring a whopping 179 kilometres in length, making it the second longest fjord in the country and fifth longest in the world. Get your cameras ready, as you’ll be treated to panoramic mountain vistas from every direction, with snow-capped peaks peeking over the fjord reflected on mirror-like water.

Hurtigruten cruises stop at Torsken on the southbound leg of the Svalbard Line, one of their premium, all-inclusive Signature Voyages that sails from Bergen to the Arctic archipelago and back. The secluded fishing village of Torsken is perfect for outdoors enthusiasts, tucked away in Torskenfjorden on the rugged west coast of Senja Island. It’s home to just a handful of houses, workshops, and small piers sprinkled with fishing boats and is the ideal base for exploring Norway’s second-largest island, Senja.

Senja’s stunning coastline has been rightly nicknamed the ‘Caribbean of the North’ thanks to its white-sand beaches and towering mountain peaks. It’s best to take an excursion and explore by small boat to spot white-tailed eagles, seals, seabirds like cormorants, and maybe even a golden eagle. Whether exploring Senja or simply soaking up sea views from onboard, a Hurtigruten cruise offers a chance to connect with nature, wildlife, and Norway’s stunning landscapes, with countless routes to choose from.

Book your Norwegian adventure for less, with up to 30% off, plus 10% off excursions on selected Coastal Express and North Cape Line voyages. For offers, routes and excursion info, visit Hurtigruten.

I agree with Lenny Henry – Black Britons deserve reparations

What Lenny Henry has done is extremely brave. He could have gone to his grave preserving his cheeky and affable reputation as the nation’s favourite Black comedian from the Black Country, the family-friendly funny-guy who helped launch Comic Relief…

Instead, he has written a book, The Big Payback: The Case for Reparations for Slavery and How They Would Work (Faber & Faber), in which he makes the case for paying out an estimated £18 trillion between every Black person in Britain, in slavery reparations. And it’s causing a stink.

Over the years, we’ve heard his stories about his run-ins with racists – how, growing up in Dudley, he got hate mail from the National Front, and later had dog excrement posted through his letterbox for being in a mixed-race relationship with Dawn French.

Such clearly racist behaviour is easy for most people to call out. Most people would never dream of calling someone the n-word – not to their face, at least – and the idea of picking up a dog’s doings and depositing them into the letterbox of a Black family is just as unimaginable.

Henry’s latest conversation is more nuanced – divisive, even. He wants us to discuss structural, institutional and indirect racism in Britain, which he says is harder to identify and much more widespread. But the reason people don’t like discussing it is that it involves calling out behaviours that, on the surface, may not have ill intent behind them – such as the manager who dismisses CVs because he/she doesn’t want to embarrass a candidate by not being able to pronounce their four-syllable Yoruba name.

Discussing structural, institutional and indirect racism means asking why so many are comfortable with the criminalisation of young Black people. It involves acknowledging that a friend at work isn’t just “one of the good ones”, but typical of most Black people who have the same hope, dreams and desire to live a peaceful life.

I am not being patronising when I call Henry brave. Whenever the topic of reparations is raised, scorn and ridicule are rarely far behind. How would it work? Should people of mixed race only get half the money? And why are Black people such perpetual victims?

Then come the comparisons, such as with East Asian and Jewish people: “They are all successful and don’t make excuses. Why can’t you lot pull yourselves up in the same way?”

Yet both of these communities have benefited from reparation programmes. After the Second World War, West Germany paid billions to individual survivors of the Holocaust and the state of Israel. And Britain has done so before, paying out compensation to Kenyans tortured during the Mau Mau uprising.

In 2023, the UN judge Patrick Robinson reported that Britain should pay at least £18 trillion for its role in transatlantic slavery. “Once a state has committed a wrongful act, it’s obliged to pay reparations,” he said. He should know: Robinson presided over the trial of the war criminal Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav president.

Rachel Reeves has said that paying reparations to Black Britons would bankrupt the UK. Well, no one is saying it has to be paid as a lump sum. Everyone involved has acknowledged that this could take years. It was 2015 before British taxpayers paid off the government loan taken out to compensate the 3,000 slave-owning families for the loss of their human property after slavery’s abolition throughout the empire in 1833.

As for those Georgian slave-owners, their descendants enjoy that wealth to this day. It makes no sense, morally or legally, to have compensated them, and not the descendants of the slaves who did the work and endured such harsh treatment.

Far from being the worst time to raise this subject – because racial tensions in the UK are so high – it is probably the best. Our house is shaky because its foundations are built on sand. The discussion needs to be had now, and not just about money, either. It is an acknowledgement of that dark period in history. It is an apology. It is admitting what slavery’s legacy has meant for Black people to this day.

The fact that a national treasure like Lenny Henry, someone who is regarded as a nice, non-confrontational Black person, can raise an admittedly contentious idea that is met with racist slurs, and be told to “go back to where he comes from” – where, to Dudley? – shows us that there is no right time to raise the subject of reparations.

We may as well do it now and endure the backlash. As the saying goes, when you’re used to privilege, equality feels like oppression.

Trump hosted an ‘Antifa roundtable’… it was worse than you’re imagining

Wake up, babe, new civil liberties infringement propaganda just dropped! Today’s instalment of America’s ongoing descent into farce brings us a White House press release about “Antifa terror” and a presidential roundtable devoted entirely to the group that famously isn’t a real entity.

Around noon, a press release appeared on the official White House website, quoting numerous anonymous Portland residents, including a “man,” a “woman,” and a “business owner,” all of whom absolutely want the National Guard to storm their city. “I kind of support it 110%” is an actual quote.

But that was just the appetizer. At 3 p.m., the televised meeting began. And boy, was there a lot of meat.

Held at the table of “independent journalists” (far-right activists) and moderated by Donald Trump, it opened with a statement by the president that “paid anarchists” want to “destroy our country,” followed by bizarre, conspiracy-laden claims that anti-Trump protesters have signs made of expensive paper “with beautiful wooden handles” that therefore must have been printed in the basements of secretive organizations, and that “we have a lot of records already, a lot of surprises, a lot of bad surprises” in store for the people who align themselves with anti-fascism.

And by the way, he noted, “we got rid of free speech” because flag-burning is bad.

Attorney General Pam Bondi jumped in to underline the message: “We’re not going to stop at just arresting people in the street.” No, they’re going to “take down the organization brick by brick” and “destroy the organization from top to bottom.”

In chimed Kristi Noem, everyone’s favorite puppy killer: Antifa wants to “destroy the American people and their way of life” and is a group that has “infiltrated our entire country,” from “city to city,” cried the Homeland chief. Never mind that the anti-fascist protesters in Portland, Chicago and other Democratic cities are pretty much all homegrown Americans.

No, insisted ICE Barbie — they are invaders. They are traitors. They are “just as dangerous” as MS-13, Isis and Hamas. Her priority is “making sure they never see the light again.” This, by the way, is the woman who grandstanded about “staring down” Antifa when footage showed it was actually a couple of photographers and a guy in a chicken suit.

The quotes came thick and fast from the others around the table. At one point, someone casually addressed an imaginary Antifa member, saying: “You will be crushed by the Constitution.” Just as the Founding Fathers intended, no doubt.

The frenzied energy in the room was palpable even through a screen. Influencer Brandi Kruse did a monologue about how she used to “suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome” and how, since she changed sides, “I’m happier, I’m more healthy, I think I’m even a bit more attractive.”

Not to be outdone, in came Jack Posobiec, one of the right’s weirdest hangers-on, who is perhaps most famous for the time he spread the “Pizzagate” theory and then got removed from the pizzeria in question by police for filming a child’s birthday party. Running with the major theme of the hour — that Antifa is definitely, certainly, really real despite all evidence to the contrary, and that everybody needs to stop saying it’s not real — Posobiec made a startling claim: Antifa is so clearly real that it “has been going on for almost 100 years … going back to the Weimar Republic in Germany.”

And look, yes, it is absolutely true that there were anti-fascist protesters in the Weimar Republic. If you’ll remember, those were the people taking issue with the early versions of the Nazis. But it’s sort of difficult to position yourself as the good guys if you’re aligning yourself with the Nazis in your historical analogy. I’m just saying that, if I was Posobiec’s publicity guy, I might ask him to drop that soundbite from future public appearances.

I think we all know what’s going on here. But let’s begin with the fundamentals: Antifa isn’t real — at least, not in the way one convenes a roundtable. It has no central command structure, no coherent leadership, no membership rolls, no headquarters. It is a loose ideological umbrella — a term that is sometimes used by disparate activists and local groups, but much more frequently by the far right than by the supposed lefties who are part of it.

Obviously, the fact that there’s no proof anyone even really identifies as Antifa didn’t stop the White House from designating the “group” a terrorist organization a couple of weeks ago.

Research shows that genuine political violence remains overwhelmingly driven by far-right actors, not nebulous “Antifa” networks. But this, truly, is where MAGA has arrived at: a place so far removed from observable reality that it now holds official government functions with imaginary enemies. Once, conservatism prided itself on being “the party of realism.” Today’s version treats politics as fan fiction, complete with invented villains and lore.

Such productive unreality takes the energy that could be spent on governing or solving problems and redirects it into myth-making. Instead of talking about wages, housing or climate disasters, we’ll talk about black-clad anarchists who can’t be fact-checked because they’re mostly not real. And then we’ll use their alleged existence to justify sending masked men with rifles into cities that, it just so happens, didn’t vote for us. You could almost admire the absurdity if it wasn’t attached to actual state power.

The constant threats at this roundtable aimed at “people with money” who are supposedly “funding” Antifa are the real point. And, like a lot of the White House’s output at the moment, it is intended to intimidate as many people as possible into silence.

In their little room with their teeny little microphones, a bunch of very important people in heavy makeup entered into a collective delusion today. They’re desperate for everybody else to join them. But there are some facts that just won’t un-fact. And for those of us who fancy ourselves OK with words, let’s remember that, no matter how much you twist it, being anti-anti-fascism means being fascist, even — especially — in the Weimar Republic. That’s just elementary logic.