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Voices

<p>Attempts have been made to shore up Sir Keir Starmer’s tenure at No 10 this week (Stefan Rousseau/PA)</p>
John Rentoul

Starmer’s week of chaos brings us closer to Farage as prime minister

No 10 briefing against a cabinet minister and U-turning on the Budget at the last moment are signs of a weak government, says John Rentoul

<p>Home secretary Shabana Mahmood is announcing measures to alter the asylum and immigration systems (Stefan Rousseau/PA)</p>
The Independent View

Shabana Mahmood must take care not to stoke xenophobia

<p>‘The Telegraph requires a great deal of cash to buy and then to invest, even for an asset that has fallen in value since it was acquired by the Barclay twins for £665m in 2004. Whoever buys it to must contend with a fired-up newsroom and coterie of pundits armed with a sense of entitlement and believe they know best’</p>
Chris Blackhurst

The deal that can’t get done. Who will buy The Telegraph now?

<p>‘These are scavenger technologies. They know nothing, have zero experience and have no sense. They simply parrot what’s appeared online, rubbish or not, then recombine and synthesise the old data into a plausible-looking response’</p>
Jonathan Margolis

Relax, humans! Here’s why I find ChatGPT reassuringly stupid

<p>Jack Harlow’s number one hit, ‘Lovin on Me’, contained the lyrics: 'I'm vanilla, baby, I'll choke you, but I ain't no killer, baby'</p>
Jo Bartosch

Ministers will struggle to stop men strangling their partners

<p>Krish Ramineni, left, and Sam Udotong, co-founders of Fireflies AI, which started out with them taking notes on meetings and pretending they were AI-generated</p>
James Moore

The troubling case of the fake ‘genius’ AI assistant

<p>‘Treating a friend like a subordinate can be an unconscious way to exert control. It can also be because somebody feels entitled and expects everyone around them to serve them’</p>
Charlotte Cripps

Why do my closest friends treat me like staff?

<p><em>The Independent</em>’s Christmas appeal aims to raise £165,000 to help the 70,000 children and teenagers who go missing in the UK each year to find a way back to safety</p>
The Independent View

How you can help missing children find safety this Christmas

<p>Karidja Toure and Idrissa Diabate in Girlhood: a 2014 French coming-of-age drama about Marieme, a Black teenager living on the outskirts of Paris</p>
Dear vix

My 14-year-old daughter is going too far, too fast with her boyfriend

<p>The White House says Epstein’s emails about the president ‘prove absolutely nothing other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong’</p>
Sean O’Grady

Is this the beginning of the end for Trump and MAGA?

<p>A screenshot from an Instagram AI video 'The gorilla swings from the branch when the branch breaks, but his fingers remain on the stump'</p>
Frieda Hughes

AI video fakes have destroyed what I used to love about Instagram

<p>Jennifer Cahill and her baby daughter, Agnes, should still be alive. The answer to a system that traumatises women isn’t to trap them in it, it’s to fix it. If you still believe that hospitals are automatically safe places to give birth, then you’re simply not listening</p>
Lucy Hunter Ford

If you think hospitals are safe for mothers you’re not listening

<p>‘Like a consultant tracing symptoms back to their root cause, we need to step back and ask what truly lies behind the unrest. And though this might not fit neatly with what the British Medical Association wants to say, I don’t think it should focus on pay’ </p>
Holly Tarn

I’m a doctor – and even I’m not sure we should be striking

<p>A front page from Nigeria’s This Day newspaper earlier this month</p>
Adewole Adebayo

Nigeria needs foreign military support to eliminate insecurity

<p>Anna Atkins’ now adult daughter, Lara, photographed at her sister’s wedding</p>
Anne Atkins

Our daughter went missing for 36 hours. The grief lasted a lifetime

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been asked to vacate Frogmore Cottage
Samuel Fishwick

No wonder Harry’s homesick - California’s no place for gingers like us

The Duke of Sussex has cut a glum figure of late — booed at the baseball and struggling with his wife's brand. I'm not surprised he's missing 'banter' Britain, says fellow redhead Samuel Fishwick

<p>Donald Trump has threatened the BBC with a lawsuit over its editing of his January 6 speech, which led to the resignation of director general Tim Davie</p>
Mark Stephens

The BBC should stand up to Trump’s $1bn legal demand

<p>‘These shadows are what haunt those who are left behind. Is our loved one all right? Did we do something wrong? What will it take to bring them back?’</p>
Ian Rankin

What I learned about real-life missing person cases when writing Rebus

Explore news for you

More Voices

<p>‘Rayner did not need to give an interview this weekend, however focused it was on her constituency work’</p>
The Independent View

Rayner’s reappearance is a further damning of Starmer’s leadership

The Independent View

Rayner’s reappearance is a further damning of Starmer’s leadership

Editorial
<p>‘Rayner did not need to give an interview this weekend, however focused it was on her constituency work’</p>
<p>Many said their most productive years were spent under supportive leaders</p>
Lifestyle

‘She screamed in his face’: Readers share toxic boss stories

<p>Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer may be repeating their tax errors from last year</p>
The Independent View

Rachel Reeves’s U-turn on income tax is needless, cowardly – and wrong

<p>The chancellor Rachel Reeves will unveil her Budget later this month</p>
Voices

If income tax isn’t going up… what is, chancellor?

<p>‘When you're a 16-year-old kid with no family, and then an 18-year-old kid who is grieving, it's hard to sort anything out when you can barely think straight, let alone get your life straight’</p>
Voices

At 16, I was cold, wet and homeless – I wish I’d known there was help

<p>‘When you're a 16-year-old kid with no family, and then an 18-year-old kid who is grieving, it's hard to sort anything out when you can barely think straight, let alone get your life straight’</p>
Voices

At 16, I was cold, wet and homeless – I wish I’d known there was help

<p>‘Reeves promised to restore financial stability. Instead, we have had weakness, U-turns and mounting chaos’</p>
Voices

Britain has no idea who exactly is running this government

<p>Chancellor Rachel Reeves will deliver the Budget in 12 days</p>
Voices

The tax ‘waffle bomb’ has detonated under Labour

Most commented

Sending licence fee money to Mar-a-Lago not ‘smart’, shadow minister suggests

136 comments

Asylum seekers to lose benefits under Labour immigration system overhaul

189 comments

Trump tells Republicans to release Epstein files and ‘move on’: Live updates

326 comments

Mahmood threatens Trump-style visa ban on several countries: Live updates

338 comments
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More Voices

<p>Outgoing director general of the BBC, Tim Davie, admitted that the corporation had ‘made some mistakes that have cost us’</p>
Home News

Have your say: How can the BBC adapt after Trump and various scandals?

<p>‘Reeves really doesn’t have much choice but to raise taxes because the alternative is a Liz Truss-style meltdown on the markets, which would obviously make a difficult situation very much worse’ </p>
Voices

No 10 needs to grow up – or we’ll wheeze our way into a recession

<p>The political reluctance even to ‘do the right thing’ and repatriate Afghan forces at risk of torture and execution at the hands of the Taliban was apparent almost from the first days after the hasty evacuation of Kabul</p>
The Independent View

The casual cruelty of the MoD’s Afghanistan cover-up is clear to see

<p>Prime minister Keir Starmer and home secretary Shabana Mahmood</p>
Voices

Dare we go the full Danish and make Britain a ‘zero refugee’ zone?

<p>Ed Miliband ruled himself out from standing to be Labour leader, saying having done it before, it was that ‘best inoculation’ against wanting the job</p>
Voices

How being PM became the top job that suddenly no one wants

EEUU-ARANCELES-DIVIDENDO-QUÉ SABER
Voices

The four-word message the BBC should send Trump about his $1bn lawsuit

<p>Prime minister Keir Starmer and home secretary Shabana Mahmood</p>
Voices

Dare we go the full Danish and make Britain a ‘zero refugee’ zone?

<p>Ed Miliband ruled himself out from standing to be Labour leader, saying having done it before, it was that ‘best inoculation’ against wanting the job</p>
Voices

How being PM became the top job that suddenly no one wants

EEUU-ARANCELES-DIVIDENDO-QUÉ SABER
Voices

The four-word message the BBC should send Trump about his $1bn lawsuit

<p>‘Far from being long-standing political foes, Wes Streeting and Morgan McSweeney are political kindred spirits. Streeting was a key figure in the Labour Together campaign group set up by McSweeney and credited with toppling Jeremy Corbyn as leader and replacing him with Starmer’</p>
Voices

Can Starmer’s chief aide Morgan McSweeney survive PM’s latest fiasco?

Voices

Can Starmer’s chief aide Morgan McSweeney survive PM’s latest fiasco?

Simon Walters
<p>‘Far from being long-standing political foes, Wes Streeting and Morgan McSweeney are political kindred spirits. Streeting was a key figure in the Labour Together campaign group set up by McSweeney and credited with toppling Jeremy Corbyn as leader and replacing him with Starmer’</p>
<p>Arne Slot reacts following the English League Cup fourth round football match between Liverpool and Crystal Palace at Anfield </p>
Football

‘Slot has wrecked the team’: Fans clash over Liverpool’s lost spark

<p>‘My citizenship means I can give service to God and the Church in my role as a diocesan bishop, and one who sits in the House of Lords – a role only afforded to those who are citizens’</p>
Voices

As a refugee, British citizenship changed me. Don’t deny others that

Voices

Can the PM survive winter ‘coup season’?

<p>Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has said the prime minister should now fire those who were plotting against him (Leon Neal/PA)</p>
Voices

No 10’s senseless attempt to save Starmer has backfired spectacularly

<p>Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has said the prime minister should now fire those who were plotting against him (Leon Neal/PA)</p>
Voices

No 10’s senseless attempt to save Starmer has backfired spectacularly

<p>US President Donald Trump during his state visit to the UK</p>
Voices

Trump has taken his media war global – and the BBC is helping him

<p>Florence Pugh with her then boyfriend Zach Braff, who was 21 years older</p>
Voices

I’m with Florence Pugh – what women really want is an age gap

<p>Tim Davie is right to be proud of the BBC’s journalists, but he and his most senior colleagues should be ashamed of the way they have handled the issues raised concerning the Trump ‘Panorama’ documentary</p>
The Independent View

This BBC crisis is about more than one stupid error

<p>Matseliso Lekhoele, 36, who is HIV-positive, with her two children, Bohlokoa, eight, and Maseabata, four, inside their home in Thaba-Tsoeu, Lesotho. Aid cuts will make medication harder to get</p>
Voices

The UK used to proudly lead the world on international aid – no longer

<p>Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves: lifting the two-child benefit cap will cost £3.5bn a year, adding to the betrayal of Labour’s tax promises</p>
Voices

The PM can’t afford to cut child poverty – and can’t afford not to

<p>Another round of tax increases will inevitably attach a lead weight to Britain’s economic legs. There’s a lot riding on Reeves’s next Budget, and that R-word could at least be in play</p>
Voices

Abysmal unemployment figures are the clearest recession indicator yet

<p>It is said that BBC chair Samir Shah has never met Keir Starmer, which tells you something about the prime minister’s priorities</p>
Voices

The BBC is in a fight for its survival. It’s time the PM took heed

<p>Many readers said they no longer wear a poppy at all</p>
Home News

‘Cult of the poppy’: Why readers are ditching the remembrance symbol

<p>Deborah Turness, outgoing head of BBC News</p>
The Independent View

Sanctimonious GB News is in no place to lecture BBC on fairness

<p>‘Booze isn’t as buoyant as it once was, with Gen Z, or a substantial chunk of it, swearing off the stuff’</p>
Voices

As Smirnoff struggles, can this man save Big Booze from Gen Z?

<p>Former prime minister Boris Johnson has led a campaign against the BBC, accusing the broadcaster of displaying sustained prejudice</p>
Voices

One man is responsible for bringing the BBC so low – Boris Johnson

Voices

One man is responsible for bringing the BBC so low – Boris Johnson

Chris Blackhurst
<p>Former prime minister Boris Johnson has led a campaign against the BBC, accusing the broadcaster of displaying sustained prejudice</p>
<p>Going dark: ‘A right-wing, illiberal metropolitan elite – an underreported conspiracy – have long since made their minds up that they’d be better off without a source of independent facts and news’</p>
Voices

Trump’s $1bn lawsuit won’t finish the BBC off – but Nigel Farage might

<p>BBC director general Tim Davie has resigned </p>
Home News

‘Back to basics’: Readers on the BBC’s future after Trump controversy

<p>Too many of these young people have nowhere to turn when they need help most. SafeCall will change that</p>
Voices

Join The Independent’s SafeCall campaign today

<p>‘At a time when our survival depends on these crops, the science that could secure them receives all too little support from responsible businesses and philanthropists, as well as governments – globally, a fraction of medical science’</p>
Voices

It’s time to plant a seed – crops and food are key to climate change

<p>‘At a time when our survival depends on these crops, the science that could secure them receives all too little support from responsible businesses and philanthropists, as well as governments – globally, a fraction of medical science’</p>
Voices

It’s time to plant a seed – crops and food are key to climate change

<p>Early morning kisses on London Underground are outraging social media users, with some calling for a ban</p>
Voices

It’s fine to snog on the Tube – the earlier in the morning the better

<p>‘I was almost tricking myself into believing this is what I want, this is what I should like, and this is how I should be treated’</p>
Voices

The government is set to ban strangulation porn: Too little, too late?

<p>Adam Dance MP was diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD as a schoolboy (right)</p>
Voices

For years, I was bullied at school – a teacher’s intervention saved me

<p>‘Indeed, the great majority of governments and people now understand that ignoring or denying the harsh realities of climate change is short-sighted and delusional’</p>
Voices

Is your kitchen at risk from climate change?

<p>The progressive left favourite Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, with the New York mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani</p>
Voices

Zohran Mamdani has paved the way for AOC to run for president

The Independent View

Trust in the NHS depends on overhaul of nursing standards

<p>‘The markets responded well, pleased that Reeves is prepared to bear the political cost of keeping debt under control. The public has not reacted yet. When it does, the scale of the political disaster will unfold’</p>
Voices

Read her lips: Rachel Reeves means tax rises

<p>‘Food waste must be put at the centre of the climate agenda. At COP30, governments should legislate for measurement. Waste must be tracked farm-to-fork, publicly reported, and independently audited’</p>
Voices

At Cop30, food waste must be put back on the climate agenda

<p>‘From Mamdani to Zack Polanski, politicians willing to take on the status quo on both sides of the Atlantic are surging. We can’t bury our heads in the sand to this reality’</p>
Voices

Labour needs its own Mamdani moment

<p>Resident doctors are planning to walk out for a strike over pay</p>
Voices

Junior doctors like me aren’t greedy – we’re fighting to save the NHS

<p>Donald Trump speaking in the White House this month</p>
Voices

Trump is in a power battle more important than the New York mayor

Voices

Trump is in a power battle more important than the New York mayor

Jon Sopel
<p>Donald Trump speaking in the White House this month</p>
<p>Rachel Reeves has put the country on notice that sweeping tax rises are coming in her Budget</p>
The Independent View

Labour cannot afford many more weeks like this one

<p>Donald Trump speaking in the White House on 6 November 2025 </p>
Voices

The BBC has bigger impartiality problems than its coverage of Trump

<p>Cat Burns and Alan Carr, finalists in Celebrity Traitors</p>
Voices

Let’s hear it for Alan and Cat, the LGBT power in the Traitors’ tower

<p>‘Even today, in a time of cultural atomisation, it still has the capacity to persuade millions of people to watch at the same time’</p>
Voices

ITV is a national treasure – why is it being sold for peanuts?

<p>‘Even today, in a time of cultural atomisation, it still has the capacity to persuade millions of people to watch at the same time’</p>
Voices

ITV is a national treasure – why is it being sold for peanuts?

<p>Adjusting for inflation, Musk easily outstrips JP Morgan, Henry Ford, John Paul Getty and Rupert Murdoch put together</p>
Voices

Elon Musk is worth every cent of his trillion dollars

<p>‘The bigger issue for the chancellor and the government is not just that they’re having to ditch one of their central promises - it’s that it’s taken sixteen months to do it’</p>
Voices

Labour has been remarkably straight with us — except where it counts

<p>The Conservatives have accused Labour of treating motorists ‘like a cash machine’ amid reports that drivers of electric vehicles could face a new pay-per-mile tax in Rachel Reeves’s Budget</p>
Electric Vehicles

‘It was inevitable’: Drivers react to EV pay-per-mile tax reports

<p>A new report found that 86 per cent of male drivers feel confident behind the wheel, even though 76 per cent of UK road deaths happen while they’re driving</p>
Voices

Honestly, is there anything that men’s overconfidence can’t ruin?

<p>Ms Sheinbaum's security swiftly stepped in during the incident</p>
Voices

Mexico’s president was groped in plain sight – are we ever safe?

<p>‘If this one emerges as part of Rachel Reeves’ budget it will be symptomatic of the thing that is killing the government in which she serves. By contrast to the administrations of Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair and even David Cameron, it has no plan’</p>
Voices

Reeves’s stupid tax on EVs will drive even us greenies back to petrol

<p>David Lammy stood in for Keir Starmer at PMQs on Wednesday </p>
Voices

Is it all over for Calamity Lammy?

The Independent View

David Lammy finds himself in a perilous position

<p>Chancellor Rachel Reeves will be casting a filthy look at the Bank of England for holding interest rates at 4 per cent (Justin Tallis/PA)</p>
Voices

The Bank of England has heaped more pain on Rachel Reeves

<p>‘ADHD isn’t “I’m a bit mad, me,” nor is it being a successful British comedian. It is anxiety, depression, binge eating disorder, insomnia, panic, financial insecurity, and alcoholism — and that’s just in my case’</p>
Voices

The NHS is failing women with ADHD like me – it’s now a feminist issue

<p>Chancellor Rachel Reeves has already fuelled expectations of higher taxes</p>
UK Politics

‘Doge-style cuts won’t work’: Readers on how to tackle taxes in Budget

UK Politics

‘Doge-style cuts won’t work’: Readers on how to tackle taxes in Budget

Independent
<p>Chancellor Rachel Reeves has already fuelled expectations of higher taxes</p>
<p>As one X user pointed out: ‘Resorting to swearing is a sign of desperation, embarrassing’</p>
Voices

Is there anything Robert Jenrick won’t do to get attention?

<p>Brahim Kaddour-Cherif and William Smith both escaped from HMP Wandsworth after they were released by mistake</p>
Voices

As an ex-jail guard, I’m astounded at how inmates can simply walk out

<p>‘One factor in why so many people are not working is down to NHS waiting times. Employers on their own will not solve the problem: the NHS must step up as well’</p>
Voices

The £85bn reason we need to get sick people back into work

<p>It is always worth bearing in mind in all such discussions that fee income from international students effectively subsidises the teaching of British students and the research and innovation that are key to future industrial revolutions</p>
The Independent View

You don’t need an MA to see Britain depends on foreign students

<p>It is always worth bearing in mind in all such discussions that fee income from international students effectively subsidises the teaching of British students and the research and innovation that are key to future industrial revolutions</p>
The Independent View

You don’t need an MA to see Britain depends on foreign students

<p>Prince Harry has previously admitted he's struggled with Americanisms</p>
Lifestyle

‘I can’t follow’: Readers lament creeping Americanisms in UK English

<p>‘It’s hard to see a big company like M&S as a victim. It’s a thumping big company that let the baddies in’</p>
Voices

Why I can’t forgive M&S for £300m hack that put customer data at risk

<p>We’ll have what they’re having: Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal as Annie and Sam in ‘When Harry Met Sally’ </p>
Voices

I’ve fallen in love with my best friend and don’t know what to do

<p>‘Nobody needs fireworks at random. Limiting them to professional public displays for national holidays such as Bonfire Night, Eid, Diwali, and the two New Years would give everyone a really good show’</p>
Voices

It’s time to ban the bang and leave fireworks to the pros

<p>Left-wing Democrat Zohran Mamdani rose to prominence through a grassroots campaign</p>
Voices

Zohran Mamdani’s win has left his party with a Trump-sized headache

<p>David Lammy became the first Black politician to lead Prime Minister’s Questions… and fluffed it</p>
Voices

David Lammy’s first PMQs as deputy prime minister was disastrous

<p>Kemi Badenoch described Rachel Reeves’s pre-Budget speech as ‘one long waffle bomb’ </p>
Voices

‘One long waffle bomb’: Did Badenoch’s barb rattle Reeves?

<p>Education secretary Bridget Phillipson has announced that schoolchildren will be taught how mortgages work as part of plans to shake up the national curriculum</p>
Voices

I taught my children about money – schools will do it properly

<p>David Lammy became the first Black politician to lead Prime Minister’s Questions… and fluffed it</p>
Voices

David Lammy’s first PMQs as deputy prime minister was disastrous

<p>Kemi Badenoch described Rachel Reeves’s pre-Budget speech as ‘one long waffle bomb’ </p>
Voices

‘One long waffle bomb’: Did Badenoch’s barb rattle Reeves?

<p>Education secretary Bridget Phillipson has announced that schoolchildren will be taught how mortgages work as part of plans to shake up the national curriculum</p>
Voices

I taught my children about money – schools will do it properly

<p>Britain’s jobless rate has surged to its highest level for nearly four years</p>
Money

‘Discarded like a used tissue’: Readers on reality of workplace ageism

<p>‘It is no coincidence that Polanski is becoming to Nigel Farage what Mamdani is to Donald Trump – a bogeyman to be portrayed through a distorting mirror as unpatriotic, dangerous and a threat to civilisation itself’</p>
Voices

The Z factor: Why Zohran and Zack need to be taken seriously

<p>Saving for retirement isn’t top of everyone's to-do list</p>
Money

‘Moving goalposts’: Readers on why building a pension feels impossible

<p>The owner of Primark has said it is considering spinning off the retail chain from its food business (Danny Lawson/PA)</p>
Voices

Why a Primark ‘Pr-exit’ would be great news for its customers

<p>Rachel Reeves says ‘each of us must do our bit for the security of our country and the brightness of its future’</p>
The Independent View

Our hapless chancellor has finally run out of wiggle room

<p>The impact of tuberculosis on your lungs</p>
Voices

UK aid helps guard against one of the most dangerous enemies we face

<p>LGBT campaigners have long led the global fight against Aids – but progress is fragile </p>
Voices

To end Aids, we must fight harder for LGBT rights

<p>Denis Healey, the former Labour chancellor who had to ask the IMF for a bailout</p>
Voices

Rachel Reeves has raised the ghost of Denis Healey… and an IMF bailout

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