https://znetwork.org/category/place/europe/britain/ Independent Left News, Analysis, Vision and Strategy Sat, 14 Feb 2026 17:01:34 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://znetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/cropped-Z_logo_512-32x32.png https://znetwork.org/category/place/europe/britain/ 32 32 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/starmer-is-toast-but-the-dark-forces-that-brought-him-to-power-are-as-strong-as-ever/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/starmer-is-toast-but-the-dark-forces-that-brought-him-to-power-are-as-strong-as-ever/#comments Sat, 14 Feb 2026 17:01:26 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294727 Some 30 years ago, British politics became, by design, a black box – an arena for moneyed power brokers to wield political influence hermetically sealed off from the view of voters. Only now, with the release of a portion of the Epstein Files, is a dim light being shone into its recesses, indicating how completely the billionaire class [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/starmer-is-toast-but-the-dark-forces-that-brought-him-to-power-are-as-strong-as-ever/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/palestine-action-postpone-the-celebrations/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/palestine-action-postpone-the-celebrations/#respond Sat, 14 Feb 2026 16:42:16 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294718 On the face of it the English High Court ruling that the Palestine Action proscription is unlawful makes the decision that the proscription remains in place pending appeal utterly illogical. But what if the High Court ruling is deliberately designed to fail at appeal? I believe that it is. They chose an extremely narrow path to rule [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/palestine-action-postpone-the-celebrations/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/the-truth-about-the-british-empire-and-slavery-mehdi-hasan-and-nigel-biggar/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/the-truth-about-the-british-empire-and-slavery-mehdi-hasan-and-nigel-biggar/#respond Thu, 12 Feb 2026 16:49:00 +0000 Britain once ruled over the largest empire in history. For many Britons, it remains a source of pride. Others argue its power was built on a legacy of brutality, colonial conquest and the enslavement of millions. Can Britain reckon with that past and make amends? Some say it shouldn’t have to. Mehdi Hasan goes head-to-head [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/the-truth-about-the-british-empire-and-slavery-mehdi-hasan-and-nigel-biggar/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/protecting-pedophile-predators-jeffrey-epstein-the-elites-veil-of-silence/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/protecting-pedophile-predators-jeffrey-epstein-the-elites-veil-of-silence/#respond Wed, 11 Feb 2026 17:30:00 +0000 Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are accusing the Justice Department of covering up the names of co-conspirators of the deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein as fallout from the Epstein files grows across the globe. Millions of pages remain unreleased. As many prominent U.S. figures evade accountability following mentions in the Epstein files, a number of European [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/protecting-pedophile-predators-jeffrey-epstein-the-elites-veil-of-silence/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-jury-were-right-to-acquit-the-palestine-action-defendants-heres-why-2/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-jury-were-right-to-acquit-the-palestine-action-defendants-heres-why-2/#respond Sun, 08 Feb 2026 15:48:03 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294499 Even before the trial began, the British government had done its utmost to prejudice the proceedings against six Palestine Action activists. It declared that they belonged to a terrorist organisation and that they were engaged in a terrorist enterprise in breaking into an Israeli weapons factory in Filton, Bristol – one, British officials avoided mentioning, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-jury-were-right-to-acquit-the-palestine-action-defendants-heres-why-2/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/filton-acquittals-demolish-starmer-and-cooper-lies-about-palestine-action/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/filton-acquittals-demolish-starmer-and-cooper-lies-about-palestine-action/#respond Fri, 06 Feb 2026 16:53:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294443 As the trial finished at Woolwich Crown Court of the six Palestine Action activists who entered the Filton factory to destroy Israeli killer drones, Starmer, Cooper, Lammy and Mahmood are left bereft of a single guilty verdict in the case on which they relied heavily to label Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation. I could [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/filton-acquittals-demolish-starmer-and-cooper-lies-about-palestine-action/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/vindication-uk-jury-clears-palestine-action-protesters-who-admitted-to-elbit-break-in/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/vindication-uk-jury-clears-palestine-action-protesters-who-admitted-to-elbit-break-in/#respond Thu, 05 Feb 2026 16:54:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294399 “These verdicts are a huge blow to government ministers who have tried to portray Palestine Action as a violent group to justify banning it under badly drafted terrorism legislation,” said one campaigner. In what one campaigner called a “huge blow” to the UK government’s efforts to crush Palestine Action, a London jury on Wednesday cleared six members [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/vindication-uk-jury-clears-palestine-action-protesters-who-admitted-to-elbit-break-in/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/us-aggression-uk-support-the-special-relationship/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/us-aggression-uk-support-the-special-relationship/#respond Thu, 22 Jan 2026 16:48:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293778 Forty years ago, US warplanes bombed Libya, attempting to assassinate its leader Muammar Gaddafi. Failing in that task, they managed to kill dozens of civilians in Tripoli, Libya’s capital. The attacks, which were in response to the bombing of a Berlin nightclub blamed on Gaddafi, were strongly supported by Margaret Thatcher’s government. Indeed, she allowed [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/us-aggression-uk-support-the-special-relationship/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/silencing-dissent/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/silencing-dissent/#respond Fri, 16 Jan 2026 16:49:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293519 Despite government ministers’ commitment to phasing out animal testing, Labour now intends to criminalise protests outside animal breeding and testing facilities — a move that will undermine British democracy. It might feel a long time ago now, but at the last election, while many criticised Labour’s offer as too vague or limited, there was no [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/silencing-dissent/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/court-of-session-tomorrow-on-palestine-action/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/court-of-session-tomorrow-on-palestine-action/#respond Sun, 11 Jan 2026 16:14:08 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293348 In the Western world today, fighting for freedom feels Quixotic, but I shall nevertheless wake early tomorrow to be at the Court of Session in Edinburgh by 9am to fight the proscription in Scotland of Palestine Action. I remain extremely concerned for the lives of the Palestine Action hunger strikers. As I predicted, Starmer’s government [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/court-of-session-tomorrow-on-palestine-action/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/jailed-u-k-palestine-action-activists-continue-hunger-strike-despite-health-risks/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/jailed-u-k-palestine-action-activists-continue-hunger-strike-despite-health-risks/#respond Tue, 30 Dec 2025 17:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1292925 Alarm is growing over the treatment and deteriorating health of eight pro-Palestinian activists jailed in the United Kingdom who are on hunger strike to protest their detention. The activists remain imprisoned as they await trial over charges linked to their work with Palestine Action, which the British government has banned under its Terrorism Act over [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/jailed-u-k-palestine-action-activists-continue-hunger-strike-despite-health-risks/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-end-of-2025-must-be-the-end-of-the-inane-rule-of-climate-optimism/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-end-of-2025-must-be-the-end-of-the-inane-rule-of-climate-optimism/#respond Mon, 29 Dec 2025 18:34:14 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292871 We were supposed to have gone net zero by now: that was XR’s central demand, when we formed it, seven years ago. Can we all please at last acknowledge and take seriously the utter failure to do so? Only such acknowledgement will prevent us from continuing collectively to basically ignore the increasingly pressing need to [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-end-of-2025-must-be-the-end-of-the-inane-rule-of-climate-optimism/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/britains-leaders-are-hiding-from-amoc-disaster/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/britains-leaders-are-hiding-from-amoc-disaster/#comments Fri, 26 Dec 2025 17:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292779 The plan was to stand outside the Houses of Parliament on Guy Fawkes Day with a large inflatable bomb. The protesters would then leaflet MPs as they arrived for Prime Minister’s Questions. But on the day, the far-right put a stop to that. Their larger and far more rowdy protest started earlier, and swamped the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/britains-leaders-are-hiding-from-amoc-disaster/feed/ 6 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/european-russophobia-and-europes-rejection-of-peace-a-two-century-failure/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/european-russophobia-and-europes-rejection-of-peace-a-two-century-failure/#respond Wed, 24 Dec 2025 18:38:00 +0000 Europe has repeatedly rejected peace with Russia at moments when a negotiated settlement was available, and those rejections have proven profoundly self-defeating. From the nineteenth century to the present, Russia’s security concerns have been treated not as legitimate interests to be negotiated within a broader European order, but as moral transgressions to be resisted, contained, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/european-russophobia-and-europes-rejection-of-peace-a-two-century-failure/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-reporting-facts-in-britain-can-now-land-you-in-jail-for-14-years-as-a-terrorist/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-reporting-facts-in-britain-can-now-land-you-in-jail-for-14-years-as-a-terrorist/#respond Wed, 24 Dec 2025 18:35:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292730 The moment the British government began proscribing political movements as terrorist organisations, rather than just militant groups, it was inevitable that saying factual things, making truthful statements, would become a crime. And lo behold, here we are. The Terrorism Act 2000 has a series of provisions that make it difficult to voice or show any [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-reporting-facts-in-britain-can-now-land-you-in-jail-for-14-years-as-a-terrorist/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/hunger-strikes-and-court-cases-fighting-the-proscription-of-palestine-action/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/hunger-strikes-and-court-cases-fighting-the-proscription-of-palestine-action/#respond Wed, 17 Dec 2025 18:58:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292466 Fighting the proscription of Palestine Action has become more urgent as eight brave activists enter the crucial period of their hunger strike. 12 January has finally been set for the court hearing on holding a Scottish judicial review of the proscription of Palestine Action. I am frankly terrified for the hunger strikers. The Starmer government [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/hunger-strikes-and-court-cases-fighting-the-proscription-of-palestine-action/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-colby-review-aukus-and-lopsided-commitments/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-colby-review-aukus-and-lopsided-commitments/#respond Wed, 10 Dec 2025 18:25:02 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292208 In one of his many cutting observations about the fallibility of politicians, H. L. Mencken had this to say about the practical sort: “It is his business to convince the mob (a) that it is confronted by some grave danger, some dreadful menace to its peace and security, and (b) that he can save it.”  Regarding [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-colby-review-aukus-and-lopsided-commitments/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/your-party-and-its-conference/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/your-party-and-its-conference/#respond Tue, 09 Dec 2025 18:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292191 It is probably no bad thing that health struggles have delayed my writing up Your Party’s extraordinary Liverpool founding conference. Perspective is definitely helpful to process something unique. Personally, I could not help but be struck by the number of participants who approached me as regular readers of my blog, certainly well into three figures. [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/your-party-and-its-conference/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-story-of-a-1930s-uprising-against-british-colonialism-is-key-to-understanding-gaza-today/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-story-of-a-1930s-uprising-against-british-colonialism-is-key-to-understanding-gaza-today/#respond Sat, 06 Dec 2025 17:55:53 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292094 Anyone wondering why the British state and media, despite the latter’s pretension to serve as a watchdog on power, continue to cheerlead Israel’s genocidal slaughter of civilians in Gaza will find the answers in a new film. It recounts not the current period of history, but a story from nearly 90 years ago. Palestine 36, directed by the remarkable Palestinian [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-story-of-a-1930s-uprising-against-british-colonialism-is-key-to-understanding-gaza-today/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/deliberate-contradiction-how-the-west-plays-dumb-and-kills-people-in-gaza/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/deliberate-contradiction-how-the-west-plays-dumb-and-kills-people-in-gaza/#respond Fri, 05 Dec 2025 18:53:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292019 First, let’s dissect this puzzle. On February 29, 2024, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin sent shockwaves when he informed lawmakers in the House Armed Services Committee that over 25,000 Palestinian women and children had been killed by Israel in Gaza up to that date. Austin, the military chief of the Biden Administration, delivered a fact [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/deliberate-contradiction-how-the-west-plays-dumb-and-kills-people-in-gaza/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/jeremy-corbyn-addresses-the-first-your-party-conference/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/jeremy-corbyn-addresses-the-first-your-party-conference/#respond Thu, 04 Dec 2025 16:56:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1291955 Jeremy Corbyn Addresses The First Your Party Conference.]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/jeremy-corbyn-addresses-the-first-your-party-conference/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/zack-polanski-is-coming-for-starmer-and-farage/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/zack-polanski-is-coming-for-starmer-and-farage/#respond Thu, 04 Dec 2025 16:55:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1291945 Support for the Green party in Britain has been steadily rising for the past few decades. However, few predicted that when Zack Polanski took office as Green party leader in September, membership would surge from 70,000 to 150,000 members in a matter of months. According to the latest polling, the party’s share of the vote [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/zack-polanski-is-coming-for-starmer-and-farage/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/synagogue-killings-colonialisms-victim-arithmetic/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/synagogue-killings-colonialisms-victim-arithmetic/#respond Thu, 04 Dec 2025 16:51:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1291972 After two years of ongoing genocide in Gaza, two Jewish Britons—Adrian Daulby and Melvin Cravitz—were killed on 2 October 2025 at the entrance to the Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester, following a knife attack. The news media immediately leaped into action to treat this as unprecedented (in terms of sensationalist heightening of the story, the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/synagogue-killings-colonialisms-victim-arithmetic/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/bbc-news-has-a-long-record-of-disinformation-but-this-time-it-chose-the-wrong-target/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/bbc-news-has-a-long-record-of-disinformation-but-this-time-it-chose-the-wrong-target/#respond Thu, 13 Nov 2025 16:50:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1291196 The BBC’s now in a death loop: it grows ever more craven to the billionaires, shifting the political centre of gravity further rightwards, even as the billionaire-owned media claim it’s too ‘leftwing’ The BBC is in turmoil, its director-general and head of news forced to resign after a memo leaked to the Daily Telegraph highlighted [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/bbc-news-has-a-long-record-of-disinformation-but-this-time-it-chose-the-wrong-target/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-world-transformed-2025-britains-left-wing-and-experiments-in-democracy/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-world-transformed-2025-britains-left-wing-and-experiments-in-democracy/#respond Mon, 03 Nov 2025 16:19:44 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1290773 The biggest left-wing event in Great Britain – The World Transformed – was held regularly under the patronage of the Labour Party from 2016 onward. Since the party under the leadership of Keir Starmer adopted far-right rhetoric, the festival organisers have distanced themselves from Labour and this year organised the event in Manchester independently, in collaboration with [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-world-transformed-2025-britains-left-wing-and-experiments-in-democracy/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/urgent-we-need-a-federal-your-party/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/urgent-we-need-a-federal-your-party/#respond Thu, 30 Oct 2025 15:49:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1290655 The draft Your Party constitution is for a highly centralised, London-based party which echoes the Labour Party. It “devolves” – they literally use the word – power from the centre to non-autonomous entities in Scotland and Wales. We need a Federal party – a completely different approach – where authority lies with the members, and [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/urgent-we-need-a-federal-your-party/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-powerful-who-stand-with-israel/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-powerful-who-stand-with-israel/#respond Wed, 29 Oct 2025 18:23:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1290586 On 26 October, Caroline Willemen of Médecins Sans Frontières stated that Israel continues to use the need for humanitarian aid in Gaza as “means of pressure”. “The humanitarian situation in Gaza has not improved significantly”, she told the press, “as water and shelter shortages persist and hundreds of thousands of people continue to live in [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-powerful-who-stand-with-israel/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/inside-the-fight-for-radical-democracy-in-britains-new-left-party/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/inside-the-fight-for-radical-democracy-in-britains-new-left-party/#respond Sun, 26 Oct 2025 14:26:29 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1290471 How do you distill the hopes and dreams of nearly one million supporters, build a political party that accurately reflects them, and do so in a matter of months? With its founding conference imminent, and a surprisingly vast base of support eager to feed into it, this was the quandary that Your Party, Britain’s brand [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/inside-the-fight-for-radical-democracy-in-britains-new-left-party/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/keir-starmers-labour-is-a-lost-cause-but-theres-still-hope-for-the-left/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/keir-starmers-labour-is-a-lost-cause-but-theres-still-hope-for-the-left/#respond Sun, 26 Oct 2025 13:29:13 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1290451 Labour’s political position is increasingly the reverse of the ‘for the many, not the few’ policy pursued under former leader Jeremy Corbyn. The party has embraced corporate capture and the main features of neoliberalism, albeit with incredibly poor timing, as the neoliberal economic model drives runaway wealth that increases dissent across much of the world. It [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/keir-starmers-labour-is-a-lost-cause-but-theres-still-hope-for-the-left/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-world-transformed-2025-awaiting-britains-left-wing-rockstar-and-experiments-in-democracy/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-world-transformed-2025-awaiting-britains-left-wing-rockstar-and-experiments-in-democracy/#respond Fri, 24 Oct 2025 15:51:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1290365 The biggest left-wing event in Great Britain – The World Transformed – was held regularly under the patronage of the Labour Party from 2016 onwards. Since the party under the leadership of Keir Starmer adopted far-right rhetoric, the festival organisers have distanced themselves from Labour and this year organised the event in Manchester independently, in [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-world-transformed-2025-awaiting-britains-left-wing-rockstar-and-experiments-in-democracy/feed/ 0