Concerns for classified technology after British F35 stranded in India

A state-of-the-art Royal Navy stealth fighter worth £80m has been stranded at an airport in southern India for more than 10 days after it was forced to make an emergency landing.

The F-35B Lightning jet encountered bad weather while flying about 100 nautical miles off the coast of Kerala in southern India on 14 June and was unable to return to its aircraft carrier, instead asking for permission to land at Thiruvananthapuram international airport.

The Royal Navy is said to have turned down an offer to move the warplane to a hangar because it does not want the Indians, or potentially a third party, to get a closer look at its “protected technologies”, local broadcaster NDTV quoted anonymous security sources as saying.

The Indian Air Force confirmed that the F-35B, which was conducting sorties in the Indian ocean from aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales, had made an emergency landing in Thiruvananthapuram.

The jet was “undertaking routine flying outside of the Indian Air Defence Identification Zone” when it encountered difficulties, the air force said, and Thiruvananthapuram was “earmarked as the emergency recovery field”.

“On having declared a diversion from an emergency, the F-35B was detected and identified by the IAF’s IACCS network and cleared for recovery. The IAF is providing all necessary support for the rectification and subsequent return of the aircraft.”

The Independent understands that a technical issue with the aircraft was identified after it landed at Thiruvananthapuram. The same night it arrived, an AW101 Merlin helicopter from the aircraft carrier arrived in Thiruvananthapuram with technicians to assess the plane, but it was ultimately decided that the fighter could not take off again without the assistance of a specialist team from the UK.

Indian authorities have tasked the Central Industrial Security Force, a branch of the military tasked with guarding key infrastructure, to guard the jet round the clock, which is sitting parked in the open amid monsoon rains near the domestic terminal.

A spokesperson for the British High Commission in Delhi told The Independent: “We are working to repair the UK F-35B at Thiruvananthapuram International Airport as quickly as possible. We thank the Indian Authorities for their continued support.”

The F-35B Lightning, built by the American aerospace giant Lockheed Martin, is one of the most advanced fighters in the armouries of Nato states and a few select allies. It is packed with state-of-the-art technology, including sensors, mission systems and stealth features that allow it to operate in hostile environments without being detected.

India does not have its own F-35s, though Donald Trump announced at a news conference earlier this year with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi that he was “paving the way” for India to be allowed to buy the stealth fighters. That was, however, prior to a brief conflict between India and Pakistan in which both countries claimed to have shot down each other’s jets.

“Lightning is a multi-role combat aircraft that can conduct the roles and missions of different aircraft types simultaneously,” according to a Royal Air Force description. “For Lightning, this also includes air-to-air and air-to- surface electronic warfare.”

The genius behind Duckett and an England innings that twisted reality

Ben Duckett reverse swept once, twice, three times. And eventually 12.

A modern man, conquering the most traditional role in Test cricket – opening the batting – in the least traditional of ways. With that shot alone, he made 31 runs. In total, he made 149 as he guided England to their second-highest run chase in history.

Duckett, whose highest score remains 182 against Ireland in 2023, has quietly, and consistently, built a record that places him in the upper echelons of England’s greatest openers. In a batting line-up where Joe Root and Ben Stokes’s legends are already made, where Harry Brook is the next generational talent elect, where Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope spend their lives under a microscope, Duckett’s consistency at the top of the order has gone, if not unnoticed, underappreciated.

Since his return to the Test side in 2022, he has averaged 47 with a strike rate of 88. In terms of average, it is higher than either Alastair Cook or Andrew Strauss managed. The last two men to nail the role of opener in an England shirt both ended up taking one knee in front of the Queen, knighted for their efforts. As a strike rate, it is higher than Virender Sehwag’s. The man widely considered to be the greatest aggressive opener in history.

In 2025, it may seem too early, hyperbolic even, to put Duckett’s name in the same bracket as the greats. But continue as he has been since his return to the side, and by 2035 it’ll have been there for years.

Brendon McCullum’s team have twisted reality to the point that arriving at Headingley on day five, with 350 runs still required for victory, England’s pursuit of the second-highest chase in their history felt eminently possible rather than the opinion of a madman. These run chases didn’t happen even three years ago. The dial has been turned. And this England team is the reason.

Along with Crawley, Duckett gave England their dream start. The 50 partnership between the two came in the 17th over of the innings – the slowest they’ve ever shared as a pair – but in murky, bowler-friendly conditions, it was perfect.

Duckett, watchful, punched the ball airily off the bowling of Mohammed Siraj. It dropped just in front of the fielder before skipping past him and away for four. Duckett celebrated with a mini fist pump to himself.

Duckett’s strength lies in his versatility. Against fast bowlers, he hits the same ball in three different directions. And against the spinners, he has an arsenal of sweeps to call upon. Sometimes he keeps his hands the same on the bat. Sometimes he swaps them over. Sometimes he steps forward with his right foot. And sometimes he swaps round and leads with his left.

The crowning shot of Duckett’s innings was his reverse sweep for six off Ravindra Jadeja that sailed into the East Stand. But his best was his on-drive against Jasprit Bumrah. The greatest bowler in the world, greeted with a perfect technique.

People often talk about footwork when it comes to batting. But as the pace goes up in cricket, the opportunity for players to make large movements either forwards or backwards disappears. At the highest level, there simply isn’t time.

Instead, batting becomes about weight transfer. Subtle shifts that allow batters to manipulate their stance and access all areas. Duckett, short in stature, rarely, if ever, moves his feet. Crouched low in his stance, he cuts anything slightly wide. He pulls anything slightly short. And drives anything remotely full. He is a call-and-response cricketer with the answers pre-loaded before the ball has even arrived.

Duckett’s talents have made him an all-format England opener, and further the case that he is one of England’s most complete batters. Only he and Harry Brook command a spot in all three XIs. In ODI cricket, Duckett’s average is even higher than it is in Tests, standing at 49. And since becoming the undisputed first-choice opener in 2024, it is 56.

Headingley is the home of the run chase. One of the very first Bazball chases happened here in 2022 when England blitzed 296 for three against New Zealand; Shai Hope’s twin tons downed England in 2017; and a little-known cricketer named Ben Stokes made 135 not out two years ago against Australia when England hauled in 362.

Today, Duckett added his name to that list with one of the greatest innings played in an England shirt. Eighteen months ago, England went one-nil up in a series against India after Pope made 196 in the “Heist of Hyderabad”. That innings felt like a miracle. The perfect combination of a thousand factors coming together. Duckett’s innings today, rather than a miracle, felt like a coming of age. The next step for a player who is making his legend in front of our eyes.

In India’s history, they have only failed to defend a target of north of 350 twice. The first time was in England in 2022 when the home team chased in 378. And the second was today in their very next match on these shores.

In total, four of England’s 10 highest successful run chases in Test history have come during the Bazball era. And the man leading from the front is Ben Duckett.

ITV workplace sitcom Transaction boldly breaks away from trans tropes

As the most frivolous TV format, sitcoms often have a unique license to explore the most serious matters. How they use that opportunity is up for grabs, but the levity of the quickfire comedy form allows for a surprising amount of light and shade. Consider, for example, the evolution of UK race relations as expressed in the gap between the attitudes and perspectives seen in Love Thy Neighbour (1972) and Desmond’s (1989). In the 17 years between these two shows, Britain changed, the TV commissioning process changed – and notions of representation changed along with them.

Transaction has been at least five years in the making, and even in that time, its context has become much more contested. A version of the show first saw the light of day in 2020 as a series of five-minute shorts on Comedy Central. Its creator, Jordan Gray, (a transgender woman), has now expanded the idea into a six-part sitcom for ITV, and credit is due to the broadcaster for what shouldn’t be a brave move but, in the current cultural and political climate, somehow is. Placing a trans character at the heart of their own sitcom – and indeed, placing their gender identity at the heart of the comedy – feels admirably bold and gutsy.

Of course, for a sitcom to even get a hearing, it has to be funny. Transaction is a workplace comedy and as such, sinks comfortably into a familiar set of tropes. There’s a highly strung, amiable but essentially useless boss (Nick Frost’s Simon); a handful of employees who range from eye-rollingly apathetic (Kayla Meikle’s Linda) to absurdly eager (Francesca Mills’s Millie); and a setting (fictional supermarket Pellocks) that feels like a closed loop. Inescapability is a huge part of any sitcom. It’s important that at the end of every episode, everyone ends up back more or less exactly where they started. At Pellocks, our heroes are stacking shelves, mopping floors, and working the night shift. They never even see any customers. The repetition is endless; the isolation is total.

However, Simon has made a blunder. He’s launched an accidentally transphobic advertising campaign and provoked a minor firestorm with trans rights demonstrators occupying the streets outside his shop. When he remembers that employee Tom (Thomas Gray) has a trans housemate Olivia (Jordan Gray), a solution occurs to him: could Olivia be persuaded to come work at Pellocks as a Get Out Of Jail Free card for clumsy Simon? “We want you to be as loud and as proud as you like,” he assures her.

Be careful what you wish for: the key to Transaction is Olivia’s character. For the most part, Gray plays her as a manipulative, narcissistic, and snarky nightmare – although, as we get to know Olivia better, it’s easy to see this hard external shell is brittle, too, and a response to certain life experiences. Her total lack of interest in taking the job quickly translates to a total lack of interest in doing the job. Olivia immediately realises that she is essentially unsackable – one word from her and Simon’s reputation as a monstrous bigot is set in stone.

And so, Olivia finds herself granted carte blanche to torment her workmates. She deliberately smashes jars to see if they will clean up her mess. She even tries to get one of them sacked. Speaking to Gay Star News, Gray explained her desire to write Olivia as “a regular tit-for-brains, not some tragic hero”, adding that she was bored of seeing trans people “represented as either poor suffering saints or hypersexualised villains”. In Olivia, she has certainly managed that – the character is as far from saintly as you can imagine, and all the more relatable for it.

Instead of preachy polemics, the worthiness and piety surrounding trans issues are treated as comedy fuel. Jokes about “having some extra meat to get rid of”, which conflate gender reassignment surgery with a surplus at the delicatessen counter, somehow give old tropes a pointed new twist – the comedy is refreshed by the situation. When Millie guilelessly enthuses about the Harry Potter books (does this in itself count as a micro-aggression these days?) Olivia’s thought bubble isn’t even filled in – although, in the context of his part in the new Harry Potter HBO series, the presence of Nick Frost in Transaction feels notable.

Transaction isn’t perfect. Plenty about it feels generic, and certain characters are underwritten. But sometimes, a show fits a particular moment – and often, that show is a sitcom. Transaction takes the increasingly grim persecution of a sexual minority and turns it into comedic fodder. Recent political and legal events have resulted in a trans community whose very existence is now contested. So, if Olivia takes both transphobic prejudice and liberal sanctimony and uses them equally to her advantage, who can really blame her?

A pregnant teen was sent away to a place that promised to help. Then they took her baby

When Abbi Johnson became pregnant at 16, no one offered her a baby shower. Instead, she was sent away to a maternity home for young, unwed mothers.

In her evangelical household in North Carolina, premarital sex wasn’t just taboo — it was a sin. The mentality of “saving yourself” until marriage was the most consistent thread throughout her upbringing, she told The Independent.

Her father gave her a purity ring, proudly announcing to others that she had “promised him her virginity” until she was married. That expectation is a ritual many evangelical girls go through, reinforced by youth pastors who preach modesty and obedience, warning girls not to “tempt” boys with the way they behave or dress.

So when Abbi got pregnant back in 2008, her devout parents, ashamed and desperate to hide the fallout, sent her to the Liberty Godparent Home — a little-known maternity facility on the campus of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia.

There, she was told she would be safe. Supported. Guided. What she didn’t know was that she was entering a system that many women now say was built on coercion, control, and a quiet transaction: her baby in exchange for her future.

The home for young mothers was a place that, in hindsight, felt eerily reminiscent of The Handmaid’s Tale — not in costume, but in control. There were locks on the windows and doors. The girls were required to attend church services together, taught to obey without question, and then they were punished when they rebelled. Their pregnancies were treated as moral failures that needed to be atoned for.

At the end of their time, a ceremony was held — there was cake, gifts, and family. But this wasn’t a celebration of motherhood. It was a goodbye. This is when they handed over their babies — whether they truly wanted to or not.

The twisted transaction is the center of Liberty Lost, a powerful new investigative podcast from Wondery, that dropped Monday. Hosted by journalist T.J. Raphael, the six-part series pulls back the curtain on the Godparent Home and the culture of forced adoption inside America’s most powerful evangelical university.

Raphael reveals the dystopian reality behind a secretive institution on campus, where pregnant teens have come forward years later to report feeling pressured and coerced into giving up their babies for adoption.

At the heart of the story featured in the podcast is Abbi — now in her 30s with a family, living on the opposite coast from the Bible belt – who is determined to tell the truth she says has been buried for nearly two decades, along with the trauma that never left her.

After giving birth, Abbi continued her time at Liberty University to fulfill her expected role of a “normal” college student.

But while other teenage girls were “listening to Taylor Swift and working at Forever 21,” she found it hard to care about any of it. Instead, she was consumed with the loss of the son she had handed over to a “affluent, married Christian couple” because she was told it was “God’s plan.”

“I was raised to understand that this was the path … I’d been hearing it my whole life, the rhetoric that a baby deserves two loving parents and married households, you know,” Abbi told The Independent.

What Abbi experienced stems from a dark history that began with Jerry Falwell Sr, who created these maternity homes in response to Roe v Wade back in the 1980s. But what many do not know is that some of these homes still exist today.

“It’s not even about needing that historical context to know this is what’s happening,” she said. “It’s what happened to me.”

The Liberty Godparent Home was established in 1982 and sits on Liberty University’s sprawling campus, founded by Falwell — a man who helped build the modern Christian Right, advocating for a “pro-family” agenda focused on issues like abortion, school prayer, and traditional family values.

“One man for woman for one lifetime and no sex — period — outside of marriage,” his voice booms in one of the snippets from the podcast. Falwell died in 2007, but his legacy and his mission lived on.

Now, Godparent Home is one of a growing number of faith-based maternity homes that claim to offer support to young pregnant women.

But as Raphael discovers, the real message inside the walls was often far more punishing.

If these girls complete the Godparent Home’s program, they’re eligible for a full-ride scholarship to Liberty, Raphael says.

Liberty Lost draws from intimate interviews with Abbi and three other women who lived in the Home between 1991 and 2008, weaving together stories of isolation, manipulation, and loss.

Abbi wasn’t physically forced to hand over her baby.

But after her parents refused to let her return home with the baby, with no financial support — and with the prospect of a full college scholarship dangling in front of her — she felt her options were limited.

“It wasn’t what I wanted to do at all,” Abbi told The Independent.

“But it was incredibly confusing. I would ask, ‘Why do complete strangers get to have my son, and I have to earn a relationship with him?’ I hadn’t done anything wrong. But they laid down the law — this was the punishment, and I was expected to live it gracefully.”

The adoption was sold to her as “open,” but when Abbi tried to advocate for more contact, she was denied. Her monitored visits ended.

The relationship with her son — already fragile — faded. That loss, she says, ultimately freed her to speak.

“If my son was seeking this information, I wanted it to be there. And when the other women started coming forward, it was like the biggest hug — emotionally, it was validating and gratifying. I wasn’t alone.”

She posted videos of herself telling her story and began receiving messages from other women who had similar experiences. Some had no support from anyone, others had family support, but the financial burden was too much to do on their own.

Abbi’s own experience was shaped not only by the staff at the home but by the deeply rooted religious culture she grew up in.

Both of her parents admitted to being influenced by their religious culture when making the decision to send their daughter away, and then expressed regret in response to the podcast.

“When our daughter became pregnant at 16, I made mistakes in my guidance that resulted in lifelong consequences,” her mother, Debbie Blanzy, wrote in a statement shared with the podcast. “Influenced by a culture that believed babies developed best in two-parent homes, I embraced this philosophy and didn’t connect with our daughter’s earnest desire to parent her baby son.”

She explained that their health insurance would not cover any of the expenses incurred during the birth. But the Godparent Home, at the university where she is an alum, had promised her expenses would be covered – on the condition that she complete the program.

“In other words, if she left early without staff approval, we would have to reimburse the Home for the expenses incurred for our daughter’s time there…..that scared me.”

“There was so much I didn’t realize back then about adoption, adoptee trauma, and the injurious aftermath suffered by birth parents,” she said, adding that she has come to “see things about the practice of adoption in the U.S. that are in need of reform.”

Abbi’s father, Don, echoed the regret in his statement:

“Knowing what I know now, I would not have allowed the adoption process to proceed,” he said. “I should have simply said, ‘We are having a baby. Let us celebrate and go home,’” he added, admitting that he had been “wrongfully influenced by the culture around me.”

What happened to Abbi isn’t just history — it’s prophecy.

Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, there has been a 23 percent increase in maternity homes across the United States. And Liberty’s Godparent Home sits at the center of this growing movement.

“People think these homes went away,” says Raphael. “They didn’t. They never stopped existing. If anything, in 2025, they’re growing. Since the end of Roe, there has been an effort to grow them across the country.”

Through her research, Raphael found that $50 million in state and federal funding has fueled the expansion of anti-abortion counseling centers, adoption agencies, and maternity homes.

The former director of the Godparent Home sat for years on the leadership council of the National Maternity Housing Coalition — run by Heartbeat International, the largest anti-abortion organization in the world.

That’s why this story matters now, Raphael says.

“I wanted to tell a story that could speak to our present moment. And what I learned is that the post-Roe landscape isn’t just about banning abortion — it’s about controlling the outcomes of birth. That includes who gets to be a parent.”

The Independent has reached out to both Liberty University and the Godparent Home for comment, but has not received a response. They did not respond to multiple requests for comment by Liberty Lost.

Liberty Lost isn’t just about one maternity home, or one girl.

The series asks a chilling question in a post-Roe America: Who gets to decide who is worthy of becoming, or remaining, a parent?

“There’s a need, in theory, for these places – places that provide safe housing, food, support for vulnerable women,” Raphael said. “That is a wonderful idea in theory, but when it is intertwined with potentially problematic values about single motherhood, that’s where the problem is and that’s when women face the risk of being separated from their children.”

For Abbi Johnson, the wound has never healed.

But speaking out, she says, is part of the path forward — not just for her, but for others.

“My biggest hope is that people think a lot more about the circumstances a woman finds herself in that she would even be considering adoption,” she said. “Who’s putting that option in front of her and how is it being presented and how is she being made to feel in terms of support?”

“And not just in that moment – of that traumatic experience of being pregnant when you feel like you have no support and no resources – but think about every factor that goes into finding yourself in that situation,” she continued.

“Think about what we offer women and why we offer those options and why this idea that there are better women suited for someone else’s baby is such a culturally accepted idea.”

Liberty Lost debuted June 23 on all podcast platforms.

Ex-councillor banned after saying white men should have black slaves

A former councillor who sent a racist message saying white men should have black slaves has been disqualified from serving on any authority for four years.

Andrew Edwards, who had served as Tory member of Pembrokeshire County Council representing the Prendergast ward, stepped down in December 2024 and has now been found to have breached the code of conduct.

He had left the Conservatives in 2023 when the 16-second recording first emerged, with Edwards previously claiming that it was a “deep fake” created with malicious intent.

In the recording, the person can be heard saying: “Nothing wrong with the skin colour at all.

“I think all white men should have a black man as a slave or black woman as a slave, you know.

“There’s nothing wrong with skin colour, it’s just that they’re lower class than us white people.”

Am investigation by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales found that “on balance” it was his voice on the recording, and referred the case to the Adjudication Panel for Wales.

The businessman had also admitted sharing council information and comments about the public to his partner, saying he was “venting” while under personal pressure.

Having been banned for four years, he has the right to appeal the decision of the Adjudication Panel to the High Court.

Independent candidate Alun Wills won the Prendergast ward following a by-election in February.

What’s the secret to a truly stress-free holiday?

High-end cruising has entered a new era. Today’s luxury travellers aren’t looking for big flashy experiences. They want slow-paced, intimate travel and authentic cultural immersion. More than anything else, they’re looking for ease: that feeling of being genuinely cared for, safe in the knowledge that they’re experiencing the best of the best.

That means excellent quality food and drink, of course – it’s got to be restaurant standard and cater to all tastes – but also onboard enrichment experiences of the highest calibre. The great beauty of cruising has always been that not a second is wasted. Savvy travellers get to explore a rich and rewarding variety of exotic, off-the-beaten track locations, but instead of spending half their holiday stuck in motorway traffic, they’re honing their swing in the golf net, or sipping on a cocktail on the upper deck as they travel from destination to destination.

When they’re onshore they want genuinely immersive experiences that get them under the hood of a destination: think cellar tours of local vineyards or speedboat cruises to hidden beaches. Done right, a high-end all-inclusive cruise is the ideal form of slow travel, offering a perfect balance of adventure and indulgence, proper pampering and a thrilling sense of discovery.

The world’s most luxurious fleet

First among equals when it comes to the new era of luxury cruising is Regent Seven Seas Cruises, which offers more than 170 different itineraries visiting over 550 ports of call worldwide. Each of the six ships in their fleet is opulently appointed with beautifully designed communal areas and a huge array of amenities, but none of them has a capacity of more than 746 guests, ensuring space and freedom for all aboard.

The all-suite accommodation means that the private spaces are similarly roomy, each having a private balcony and marble bathroom. And service is always impeccable with a crew-to-guest ratio that’s nearly one-to-one, meaning that the team can always go that mile extra for all travellers.

Across the ships, the food is uniformly excellent. As well as Regent’s signature Compass Rose restaurant, with its daily changing menu of bistro classics like lobster bisque and New Zealand lamb chops, the different ships also feature a range of speciality dining venues. These include Prime 7, a New York-style steakhouse, Pacific Rim with its pan-Asian menu (be sure to try the miso black cod), and fine-dining destination, Chartreuse, where the chefs turn out sophisticated plates of upscale French cooking like Beef Tenderloin Rossini and Seared Foie Gras.

With a number of long cruises on their roster, Regent has made sure that each of its ships is akin to an ultra-luxury, boutique floating hotel with an incredible variety of things to do during the day and top-level entertainment at night. There are courts for paddle tennis and bocce, and the onboard spa offers a range of exclusive bespoke treatments. The ships host talks by experts in their field and cooking lessons are also available on some of the ships at the culinary arts kitchens where visiting chefs guide guests in how to make wow-factor dishes that relate to the ports of call. In the evening, the Constellation Theatre hosts lavishly staged productions from a team of Broadway choreographers and artists.

Destinations that match the onboard luxury

Of course, none of this onboard luxury would mean much if the destinations weren’t up to scratch, but Regent’s superbly curated itineraries are up there with the very best. Its week-long trips include culture-packed European tours like Glories of Iberia which sails from Barcelona to Lisbon, and thrilling frontier explorations such as the Great Alaskan Adventure from Whittier to Vancouver.

Longer trips include four-week Legendary Journeys from Athens to Montreal, and fully immersive explorations of the Arctic. Long or short, these itineraries are all underpinned by a commitment to taking guests right to the heart of a destination with the kind of bespoke onshore activities and expert-led insights that mean on a Regent Seven Seas Cruises voyage, adventure is guaranteed.

Visit Regent Seven Seas Cruises now to uncover the true meaning of luxury and start booking your ultimate stress-free getaway

Why are Tories suddenly in favour of proportional representation?

There’s an increasing disconnect between those who want to run the country and the rest of us who merely live in it – and it seems to be making us more likely to call for a change to the way we choose them in the first place.

Back in 1986, when the British Social Attitudes Survey (BSA) first asked people whether they trusted governments “to place the needs of the nation above the interests of their party”, only 12 per cent of people said “almost never”, compared to 40 per cent who replied “just about always” or “most of the time”.

Yet, its latest report, published this morning, turns all that on its head.

Now it’s those saying “just about always” or “most of the time” who account for 12 per cent, while those who say “almost never” make up an eye-watering 46 per cent of respondents.

But as our trust in government has declined, our support for changing the electoral system so as “to allow smaller political parties to get a fairer share of MPs” has risen.

Back in 1986, for instance, just 32 per cent of us favoured change, with 60 per cent of us saying we wanted to keep the system as it is. Fast forward to today, and we see another near-complete reversal, with only 36 per cent happy with the status quo, while 60 per cent want change.

Cynics, of course, will point to what we might call the “You only sing when you’re losing” effect: as the BSA’s report shows, our views partly depend on whether the party we favour did well or badly out of the system last time around.

Given that they got just four seats in the Commons – instead of the 41 that their share of the vote might have earned them in a perfectly proportional (PR) system – it will come as no surprise that 90 per cent of Green Party voters want to see a change.

Contrast that with Lib Dem voters. Their party’s tally of 72 seats wasn’t off the 79 seats it would have been entitled to under pure PR. Cue the proportion of Lib Dems wanting change falling from 71 per cent in 2023 to just 56 per cent now.

Likewise, before last year’s landslide, some 60 per cent of Labour supporters favoured change – and that’s now fallen to 55 per cent.

Predictably enough, Conservative supporters have travelled in the opposite direction. In 2023, only 24 per cent wanted to change the voting system to make it fairer. But, after a general election that saw the Tories bag only 121 seats instead of the 154 that pure PR would have given them, that proportion has now more than doubled to 52 per cent.

Still, that pales in comparison to Reform supporters – some 78 per cent of whom say they want a change (hardly surprising, given Farage and co ended up with just 5 seats at Westminster rather than the 93 they might have expected from pure PR).

All of which means that, for the first time ever, a clear majority of the country’s right-wing voters seem open to change. Meanwhile, a majority of voters as a whole seem more relaxed about the obvious corollary of such a shift: just over half of us now say we’d prefer a coalition to a single-party government.

Put that together with the possibility that Labour, if it’s as unpopular in four years’ time as it is now, could reach for PR as a last-gasp way of “saving the furniture”, and the end of first-past-the-post (FPTP) might – just might – come sooner than we all think.

Whether that would help restore our trust in government, who knows? But it’s got to be worth a try.

Tim Bale is professor of politics at Queen Mary, University of London and the co-author of ‘The British General Election of 2024’ to be published this autumn

Trump’s expletive-laden live TV rant sees him join a long line of cussing presidents

President Donald Trump on Tuesday became the first US president to intentionally drop an F-bomb on live TV when he told reporters that Israel and Iran “have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f— they’re doing.”

His agitated comments followed a ceasefire between the two countries, which Israel claimed Iran violated just hours afterward.

But while Trump might be the first president to drop the F-bomb in official comments to reporters on live TV, he’s no stranger to public foul language. Before a national address on the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, Trump was caught on a hot mic saying “oh, f—” over a pen mark on his clothing.

In 2018, he infamously called Haiti and African nations “s–thole countries” during an Oval Office meeting.

In 2016, Trump dropped an F-bomb during his campaign rally, telling his supporters, “We’re gonna have businesses that used to be in New Hampshire that are now in Mexico. Come back to New Hampshire, and you can tell them to go f–k themselves.”

He also faced backlash after a 2005 Access Hollywood recording surfaced before the 2016 election in which he claimed that when you’re a “star,” you can grab women “by the p—y.”

However, Trump isn’t singular as a U.S. president caught cussing.

During a January 2022 briefing, a hot mic picked up former President Joe Biden calling Fox News reporter Peter Doocy a “stupid son of a b—h.”

Near the end of the event, Doocy called out, “Do you think inflation is a political liability going into the midterms?”

“No, it’s a great asset,” Biden snarked. “More inflation. What a stupid son of a b—h.”

It is unclear whether Biden realized his whisper was picked up by the microphone. Regardless, Doocy said the president called to apologize shortly after the briefing.

And in 2010, as Barack Obama’s vice president, Biden whispered at his historic health care signing, “This is a big f–king deal.”

In 2009, a hot mic caught President Barack Obama calling rapper Kanye West a “jacka–” after he interrupted Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the MTV Video Music Awards.

Obama also used profanity in a 2012 Rolling Stone interview, referring to his presidential opponent Mitt Romney as a “bulls–er.” After being approached by a young fan, Obama joked that he did well with the younger demographic.

“Thoughts on lowering the voting age?” the interviewer asked.

“You know, kids have good instincts. They look at the other guy and say, ‘Well, that’s a bulls–ter, I can tell,’” Obama replied.

Obama later admitted he likely swore more than he should, especially after becoming president.

During his 2000 campaign, former President George W. Bush told his running mate, Dick Cheney, around an unknowingly hot mic that New York Times reporter Adam Clymer a “major-league a–hole”

Bush later joked about the incident, referring to Clymer as a “major-league ass…et” in a taped message played at a press corps dinner.

He also used the F-bomb multiple times in a 1999 interview with Tucker Carlson for Talk magazine.

After Obama’s 2008 South Carolina primary win over Hillary Clinton, former President Bill Clinton compared it to the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s 1980s wins, which Obama saw as racially charged.

“I don’t think I should take any s–t from anybody on that, do you?” Bill Clinton responded, reportedly not knowing anyone could hear him.

When information leaked that the Air Force spent $5,000 on Jackie Kennedy’s maternity suite at Otis Air Force Base in 1963, President John F. Kennedy predicted political backlash and angrily called it “a f–k-up” during a phone call with a general.

Known as “Give ‘Em Hell Harry,” President Truman’s folksy language reflected his rough upbringing. He once called General Douglas MacArthur a “dumb son of a b—h” and Richard Nixon a “shifty-eyed godd—ed liar.”

President Andrew Jackson gifted his wife an African gray parrot named Poll, who picked up his foul language.

At Jackson’s 1845 funeral, Poll shocked attendees by loudly cursing.

“Before the sermon and while the crowd was gathering, a wicked parrot that was a household pet got excited and commenced swearing so loud and long as to disturb the people and had to be carried from the house,” funeral attendee Rev. William Menefee Norment once wrote.

President Abraham Lincoln famously shared a story about Ethan Allen shocking English hosts with a crude joke involving a portrait of George Washington in an outhouse, as depicted in Spielberg’s Lincoln.

“There is nothing to make an Englishman shit quicker than the sight of General George Washington,” Lincoln reportedly said.