While @ZackPolanski was struggling to make ends meet like so many in the UK (and is now cleared of council tax offences), the Labour Party was taking a £4m donation from Quadrature Capital, a "quant-based" trading and hedge fund that has held shares in arms companies involved in Gaza.
Quadrature's immediate parent company, QC Ventures, is based in the Cayman Islands.
The £4m donation was made in May 2024 to fund the Labour Party's General Election campaign... but wasn't made public until after the election. No one knew that the Party had taken its largest ever single donation and from whom until after Starmer had been elected Prime Minister.
Some handy updates since then...
In October 2025, Quadrature declared that it had made a yearly profit of £410m as of the end of January 2025. Quadrature paid out dividends of £360m.
Two months ago, it was revealed that the co-founder and co-director of Quadrature, Sunil Seitiya, spent at least £265 million buying Providence House in Chelsea. It is the most that has ever been spent on a private house sale in the UK.
Providence House is based on a two-acre plot and has the second largest private garden in central London after Buckingham Palace.
Here's the kicker: Seitiya bought the property from Nick Candy. Nick Candy has been the Treasurer of Reform since December 2024.
Whatever you might think of Polanski, or Reform, or Starmer, isn't it strange you've likely heard of Polanki's Council Tax but none of this?
And, if you had heard of it, wouldn't you end up wondering - isn't this just one big club?
I've now had a chance to read this Bill. It is a genuinely alarming piece of legislation and typical of the draconian, authoritarian politics of the Labour Together Project, in which Mahmood has been a key player.
The Bill gives the Home Secretary nearly untrammelled power to designate any "group" working to advance a "foreign state threat." They are a "threat" if they pursue any objective that is inimical to the "interests" of the UK. Anyone who "supports" a designated group, like endorsing it or sharing its messages online, faces 14 years in prison.
This is so broadly written that it invites - almost guarantees - abuse. In the context of a potential far-right government, it is madness to put such draconian legislation on the books.
We already have two examples of how the state or political actors have effectively fabricated foreign state connections.
First, in manufacturing consent towards the proscription of Palestine Action, it was leaked to the press that there were links between the direct action group and Iran. But this was entirely false, as the government's Counter-Extremism advisor sheepishly admitted months later to Channel Four.
Second, I have personal experience of this. We now know that in response to my investigations into the unlawful conduct of Labour Together and Morgan McSweeney, Labour Together hired APCO Worldwide to investigate me, my colleagues and associates. The end result was a mad dossier alleging that I was a catspaw of foreign intelligence services, working to disrupt British democracy. I've now seen some of the "raw intelligence" on which this was based: literally everything I have seen was fabricated out of whole cloth, the thumb-suck of some swivel-eyed "intelligence" source. We now know that the most senior people in the Labour Party knew about this and didn't seem to bat an eye. Some of them even seemed to believe this web of absurd idiocy.
Anybody who has spent time at the coalface of investigating powerful people or standing up to militarism and forever-wars knows how legislation like this works. Secret intelligence is used to designate groups and people. That intelligence is classified, so the accused can't even see what they're accused of. Judges are given secret briefings where intelligence officials deliver doom-laden analysis, but they can't be cross-examined by the lawyers of the accused. Whispers and innuendo, the lubricant of the sort of "intelligence" that led to war in Iraq, are spun into concrete facts and grave national security threats.
This is not hyperbole - it is literally what has happened when campaigners have tried to challenge the sale of arms to Israel and Saudi Arabia, where campaigners themselves were not able to see, hear or test the evidence of the state at trial. In every instance, judges have then decided that they have no power to gainsay the State.
As this government collapses under the weight of unpopularity and scandal, it is now delivering for the reactionary forces that helped to put it in place through systematic and pre-meditated dishonesty. The result is a lattice-work of legislation and practice designed to criminalise and constrain dissent in the face of genocide, war, environmental degradation and the sort of corruption that turns state murder into money and misconduct into power.
There is every chance that within a week, Andy Burnham will be challenging Starmer for power. It is plausible Burnham could be Prime Minister by September.
His task, amongst many, will be to seek accommodation with progressive voters and movements that have abandoned the Labour Party. There will be plenty of discussion about the wisdom of that move from both sides. But it is likely to fail unless a Burnham government reverses course on the Starmer project's assaults on protest, jury trials, dissent, free speech and basic civil liberties.
And none of that is plausible as long as Mahmood, or any other Labour Together alumni, remains in post.
I spent all day in Woolwich Crown Court yesterday for the Filton activists' sentencing hearing with my colleague @daniaakkad.
The court heard that the Terrorism Act was never intended to cover direct action protest.
It heard that all of the defendants had been cleared of violent intent and sentencing them as terrorists would mark a historic first for charges of criminal damage.
It heard that the Suffragettes, who did "a bit of smashing themselves", would have been labelled as terrorists but have now been vindicated by history.
It heard the activists' goal was to stop the supply chain of drones and weaponry to Israel as it commits genocide in Gaza.
It heard that attaching a terrorism connection to a case without it ever being heard by a jury was unconstitutional and posed a threat to the criminal justice system itself.
It heard that the "terrorism connection" has been disproportionately used against minority groups and those advocating for them while not being used for neo-Nazis and white supremacists, including the man who killed Jo Cox MP.
It heard that the law has been reinterpreted since the action took place, meaning the activists could have had no idea that what they did could have been caught up in terrorism laws at the time of the protest.
It heard that the prosecution submitted key evidence just eight days before the hearing, giving the defence no time to review it or even discuss it with their clients.
Despite all of this, Judge Jeremy Johnson, who has already tried to refer the defence's lead barrister for contempt of court and been forced to apologise for it, sentenced the defendants as terrorists.
The judgment was handed down within minutes, indicating Judge Johnson had already made his mind up before the hearing had begun.
Being in court yesterday felt akin to witnessing a colonial crime: punishing activists with terrorism offences in order to set a precedent that taking direct action to stop a UK-backed genocide will not be tolerated.
Los grupos de unionistas fascistas de Irlanda del Norte, elaboraron durante casi 1 año una lista previa de hogares de familias migrantes a atacar
The Guardian ha revelado que la Policía lo sabía desde hace 8 meses, en todo momento ha sido cómplice del pogromo racista
You can vehemently disagree with Palestine Action activists goals, whilst simultaneously be horrified a judge can decide AFTER a conviction if it was terrorism related amd double a sentence.
Being able to class an offense as terrorism AFTER conviction without charging them with terrorism should bother everyone.
Any protest action that is now determined as trying to "change government policy" can have this applied.
So today it's Palestine Action, but next it'll be immigration protests, farmers protests, NHS, tax etc etc.
Gut wrenching to see four young people jailed for direct action against an arms supplier to Israel.
Years in prison for protesting to save lives in Gaza, with 'terrorism' used despite no jury convicting them of it.
A truly dangerous attack on the right to protest.
Jeremy Johnson - in 50 years time this will be the only 1.39 minutes of your life you'll be remembered for. It'll be played in genocide museums to sum up the complicity and callous brutality of the British state in the face of the slaughter of the Palestinian people - and the courage of those who opposed it.
@SenSanders Maybe now that’s he’s finally beaten Bezos to the target he can start using his unfathomable wealth for the good of the world alleviating hunger, illness and poverty instead of sowing hate and division around the world and instead leave a meaningful legacy for centuries
This is an affront to British justice & democracy. This is what Starmer, Lammy & Cooper have created in Britain: a system that represents Netanyahu & Elbit Systems rather than the interests of the British people, the vast majority of whom want to stop arms sales to Israel. The right to protest is dead, the right to an open & honest trial is dead. The right to be on the side of peace & human decency rather than genocide, is dead
😱😱😱 And just like that, it’s completely VANISHED from the media.
A sitting congressman, Ted Lieu, said on the record the Epstein files are being blocked because they show Trump raped and threatened to kill children.
Lets make this viral again 👇
1 in 20 Catholic families were burned out of their homes in Belfast in 1969.
As one scholar put it, at the time it was "the largest forced population movement in Western Europe since the Second World War."
👏 🇬🇧 Zeteo UK is here to disrupt Britain’s broken media! We’ll be bringing fearless, independent journalism to the UK - no bowing to political pressure, no corporate interests, just fearless journalism.
As South Africa, we hosted the World Cup in 2010.
Upon the insistence of FIFA & in accordance with the Host Country & Host City Agreements, we had to waiver laws, by-laws, policies, regulations, processes & the like, to ensure that South Africa became the ultimate hosts of the world during the period.
We passed special legislation specifically to meet FIFA's hosting requirements for the 2010 World Cup. The most important were the '2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa Special Measures Act, 2006 (Act 11 of 2006)' and the 'Second 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa Special Measures Act, 2006 (Act 12 of 2006)'. These laws were enacted to give legal effect to the guarantees we had made to FIFA during the bidding process.
The special laws effected temporary special provisions & exceptions in certain areas, including: Special visa, work permit, & accreditation arrangements for players, officials, media & visitors.
These requirements were not exclusive to South Africa, as Korea & Japan (2002), Germany (2006), Brazil (2014), Russia (2018), Qatar (2022), had to enact the same.
🚨BREAKING: Rep. Ansari stepped out of Pam Bondi's Epstein files interview to tell the American people what's happening behind closed doors.
"The DOJ has been weaponized by Donald Trump to ensure that the most massive cover-up in American history is carried out."
She didn't stop there.
Ansari also accused James Comer, Mike Johnson, and Republican leadership of helping enable it.
They’re not even trying to hide it anymore. A total sham.