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Keir Starmer attempted to launch a counter attack against Nigel Farage in a speech yesterday, accusing him of “using your family finances, your mortgage, your bills as a gambling chip on his mad experiment”. He ended up comparing Farage to Liz Truss. But as we learn from historian Martin Farr, a big problem for Starmer is that Farage now presents a threat without precedent. It’s not much use comparing him to past prime ministers, however unpopular they may have been, in the political environment we now live in.
Having pushed Starmer to the right, Farage this week attacked him from the left as well. By announcing that Reform would reverse Labour’s unpopular policies on child benefits and winter fuel, he sounded uncannily statist. Isn’t that supposed to be Labour’s job?
Farr is sceptical that Reform is yet ready to mount a true electoral challenge against the mainstream – but that doesn’t mean the way forward for Starmer is any clearer.
A 53-year-old man appeared in court today, facing seven charges related to allegedly driving his car into a crowd after Liverpool FC’s victory parade. After the incident, Merseyside Police quickly made an arrest, and told the public that the suspect was white. It’s highly unusual for the police to release the ethnicity of someone they’ve arrested, so why do it now?
As legal experts John McGarry and Kate Astall explain, the police are trying to avoid a repeat of last summer’s riots, which followed the murder of three young girls in Southport. At the time, police did not share many details about the suspect, leaving an information void into which misinformation flowed freely. But, as our experts explain, the decision to share a suspect’s ethnicity, as they did this time, is no simple fix. It sets a precedent that could backfire, should police make a different call in the future.
It also raises questions as to whether the UK’s laws on contempt of court, which are already confusing and not well-publicised, are fit for purpose in the social media age. When rumours and false information can spread quickly, you may not realise that something you share or post could land you in legal trouble.
The government is considering a national rollout of mandatory chemical castration for sex offenders in prison. The theory behind this process is that it will help sex offenders avoid future crimes and protect the public in the process. As we learned from research into so-called "dual-purpose interventions", this is a whole new grey area for medical ethics and law.
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