Should Reform start looking over their shoulders? Their lead at the top of the polls is dwindling, as the Green Party continues to gain.
To say Nigel Farage and Reform are in the cross-hairs right now could prove to be the understatement of the year. After soaring high in the voting intention polls throughout 2025, one survey has shown that their lead over the chasing pack has dropped significantly in recent weeks.
The political upstarts have endured arguably their roughest time since their official rebrand to ‘Reform UK’, following a slew of scandals and negative headlines. After taking charge of their first local councils back in May, tax rises have been proposed – and a flurry of councillors lost their positions.
This unsteady ship has been further rocked by allegations levelled against Nigel Farage himself. His connections to Nathan Gill, the former leader of Reform in Wales who was convicted of taking Russian bribes, provided ample fodder for his political opponents on the offensive.
Weeks after this fiasco, former classmates of Brexit’s biggest cheerleader accused him of using racist and antisemitic language during his school days. He has so far refused to issue an apology – but the toxicity surrounding these claims has done Mr. Farage no good in the polls…
Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an obviously insane, xenophobic Fascist.Nigel Farage explains the politics of Reform UK: Racism, Fake anti-establishmentism, Deregulation, Corporatism, Climate Change Denial, Mysogyny and Transphobia.Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
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Red Ribbons campaign by the Palestinian Forum in Britain in support of Dr Hussam Abu Safiyyah and Palestinian detainees
The Palestinian Forum in Britain (PFB) has announced the launch of a new solidarity campaign calling for the release of Dr Hossam Abu Safiya and all Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli occupation prisons. The campaign will take the form of a calm, symbolic action titled the “Red Ribbons Campaign”, to be held on Saturday 20 December at Oxford Circus in central London, at 1:00 pm.
The Forum explained that the event is neither a demonstration nor a protest march, but a silent, peaceful act of solidarity. Participants will hang red ribbons and display specially designed posters carrying clear demands for freedom and justice, conveying a humanitarian message to British and international public opinion about the suffering of Palestinian prisoners.
The Forum invited participants to bring red ribbons if possible, stressing that presence alone is a statement, and that quiet, symbolic solidarity can be more powerful than slogans, particularly amid ongoing attempts to criminalise or restrict pro-Palestine advocacy in the British public sphere.
The red ribbon: a global symbol for the prisoners’ cause
In a clarifying statement, the Palestinian Forum in Britain emphasised that the campaign aims to establish the red ribbon as a global symbol for raising awareness of the Palestinian prisoners’ cause, and to highlight their situation as hostages of the occupation—especially in light of what it described as an “unprecedented escalation in policies of arrest, isolation, starvation and enforced disappearance”.
The Forum noted that the choice of red reflects danger, urgency and the ongoing human bleeding inside prisons, serving as an open call to the global conscience not to normalise silence in the face of these violations.
Shocking figures on the reality of prisoners as of December 2025
The campaign draws on documentation by Palestinian prisoners’ rights institutions and figures released by the Israeli Prison Service up to December 2025, which reveal a stark and brutal reality:
The total number of prisoners and detainees in Israeli occupation prisons stands at approximately 9,300, the majority of whom are detainees and administrative prisoners, excluding those held in Israeli army camps.
The number of sentenced prisoners has reached 1,254.
There are 51 female prisoners, including two children.
Around 350 child prisoners are being held in Ofer and Megiddo prisons.
The number of administrative detainees has reached 3,350.
Some 1,220 detainees are classified as “unlawful combatants”—a figure that does not include all Gaza detainees held in army camps, and which also includes Arab detainees from Lebanon and Syria.
The Forum stressed that these figures point to a system of mass detention based on the denial of the most basic legal and human rights, constituting a clear violation of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions.
An open call for solidarity
The Palestinian Forum in Britain concluded its statement by calling on all people of conscience in Britain to take part in the Red Ribbons Campaign, affirming that the prisoners’ cause—foremost among them Dr Hossam Abu Safiya—is not solely a Palestinian issue, but one of justice and human dignity that deserves to remain at the heart of public discourse, regardless of mounting attempts at marginalisation or exclusion.
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Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAOrcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion Siân Berry. Image by Kelly Hill, Wikimedia CC BY-SA 4.0.
Reacting to news that Kemi Badenoch’s Conservatives would scrap the 2030 cut-off date for the sale of petrol and diesel vehicles, Green MP Siân Berry said:
“This proposal from the Conservatives would set the car industry backwards, creating turmoil right when it needs continued certainty from Government that we want a better future than communities plagued by air pollution, and one where lower carbon industries matter.
“The Green Party is fully committed to a fair transition to a cleaner, greener economy, and Labour must not be pushed into backsliding by this move, driven as it is by desperate fossil fuel lobbying.”
The right to trial by jury dates back to at least the 12th century. The government’s proposals to limit it in England and Wales, many argue, run counter to the UK’s core democratic principles. And as others have pointed out, scrapping jury trials for some crimes is unlikely to solve the massive backlog in the crown courts.
Our research suggests that there is another reason why it is a bad idea to scrap jury trials. They can play a vital role in reducing racial discrimination in the criminal justice system.
The proposals laid out by justice secretary David Lammy would have a disproportionately negative impact on people of colour – both defendants and victims – for whom jury trials give a glimmer of hope in a criminal justice system where “ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) appear to be over-represented”.
Government datarepeatedly shows black, Asian and minority ethnic defendants are less likely to plead guilty than white defendants, and more likely to take their cases to trial. Lammy’s own 2017 review of racial inequality in the justice system suggests this is driven by a perception that the plea-bargaining process is unfair to defendants of colour, and that only a jury of peers will give them a fair trial.
Once black defendants choose a jury trial, research shows they are “more likely … to obtain acquittals or reductions in charges as a result”, compared to black defendants who plead guilty without opting for a trial.
A jury of 12 people brings a broader array of diverse perspectives and opinions which enhance the quality of discussions in deliberations, particularly in cases involving an ethnic minority defendant. Defendants should have their fate decided by people who might better understand their experiences, backgrounds and motivations.
Lammy’s 2017 review emphasised the importance of juries in making the criminal justice system more legitimate, particularly for people of colour: “Juries deliberate as a group through open discussion. This both deters and exposes prejudice or unintended bias: judgements must be justified to others.”
Sentencing is also disproportionate for defendants of colour when compared to white defendants, following both jury trials and plea agreements. Research has found that explicit or implicit judicial biases – whether judges stereotype the defendant, how they interpret sentencing recommendations from prosecutors and defence counsel, or how they apply aggravating and mitigating factors – may all contribute to these disparities.
The UK’s Contempt of Court Act limits this type of research with live juries. But there is enough evidence from other jurisdictions to suggest that retaining juries, and ensuring those juries are diverse, is essential for protecting the fair trial rights of people of colour generally, and black people in particular.
Justice for victims
Jury trials are also essential for black victims and their families. Since 2022, we have worked with the family and friends of Dea-John Reid, a 14-year-old black boy who was racially abused and chased through the streets of Birmingham by a group of white boys and men who fatally stabbed him in broad daylight.
In their 2022 trial, the perpetrators were acquitted of racially aggravated murder, with only the principal offender found guilty of manslaughter by a jury of one Asian and 11 white members. Dea-John’s family felt that the lack of diversity on the jury, which did not have a single black member, could have meant they were less likely to see Dea-John as a worthy victim. Research shows that black men and boys are stereotyped as suspects – even when they are victims of crime.
Since 2022, we have worked with the family’s campaign, which supports retaining jury trials, but wants them to be more ethnically diverse, particularly in cases involving black victims. Our research has documented the campaign and is addressing critical gaps in UK research on jury diversity.
Diversity in the judiciary
Lammy’s proposals for reform include expanding the use of bench trials. This means that more cases would be heard by a single judge alone.
The judiciary in England and Wales is neither sufficiently diverse nor representative of the population. While black, Asian or minority ethnic people make up around 22% of the population, as of 2025, they make up only 11% of all court judges.
Lammy’s proposal also goes against what the public wants. In 2024, we surveyed 1,000 members of the public, 75% of whom stated explicitly that they believed the UK should have jury trials.
While most of our respondents believed that jury trials were fair (51%) and trustworthy (60%), they also felt strongly that more diverse juries were fairer (61%). Around half of people (51%) believed juries should look like the communities they serve. We found that for people of colour, taking part in jury service was viewed as even more important than for white respondents.
When it comes to perceptions of fairness and trust in the courts, we found important racial differences. Our research found that people of colour trust judges and the courts at lower rates than white people. People of colour in our survey were also more likely than white people to believe that judges treat them more unfairly compared to white people. And most of our respondents believed that more diversity in the judiciary is needed.
If Lammy remains committed to reducing inequality in the criminal justice system for people of colour, rather than reducing jury trials, he should be increasing them, and the diversity on them, to ensure justice for all.
UK Labour Party Foreign Secretary David Lammy repeatedly heckled at a speech to the Fabian Society over his and the Labour Party’s support for and complicity in Israel’s genocide of Gaza.
