Stumac26

F1 fan

[The Free Speech Union @SpeechUnion]

This is completely unacceptable. Nobody should be suspended from their job for the views they hold.

Nobody has the right to prevent someone from earning a living because they do not feel “comfortable” with their views. That is not how our society or economy works.

The thought police and the actual police are creating an environment of fear. Employers should not kowtow to the censorious tactics of certain employees.

@sophielouisecc, please let @SpeechUnion know if we can be of any assistance.

[David Atherton @daveatherton]

A reminder an HGV driver wrote to me. He delivers live animals to abattoirs & describes the places as sadistic, vile & depraved cruelty. Halal slaughter should be banned immediately.

"David I need to remain anonymous to keep my job as I work for a large multinational that are very PC/woke and me getting involved in any sort of discussion like this would cost me my job.

"I’ve worked previously as a HGV driver delivering livestock to slaughterhouses. In the build up to Ramadan the company I worked for made sheep deliveries to halal slaughterhouses up and down the country.

"We’d always deliver after dark and the loading bays would be full of Muslim men and boys who’d come to choose their sheep. They’d be climbing up the outside of the trailer to get a look in and try pick which one they wanted. They’d be shouting and screaming whilst banging on the trailer to try get the sheep to move around.

"Drivers would always do their best to try stop them as the animals are still in their care whilst on the vehicle. Once the trailer door was open the men would be jumping in the trailers trying to grab their sheep and mark it. We’d often end up physically removing the men and a few times it ended up in fists flying.

"Once the sheep had been herded into the slaughterhouse pens the real barbarism would begin. After waiting hours and hours with no access to water the Sheep were punched and kicked by the men and boys and forced onto the waiting line to be slaughtered. The whole place is absolute chaos with people screaming and shouting and the sound of dying animals.

"Once they reached the front of the queue there’d be an imam sat there reciting prayers as the slaughter man grabbed the animal by the head, spun it round and slit its throat. It would then be hung upside down on an overhead hook conveyor and transported for butchering as it was still bleeding and writhing around in agony.

"It’s not an instant death by any means. The supposed “vet” whose job is to maintain welfare standards is nearly always a friend of the owners and is also Muslim who’s paid and simply turns a blind eye. The whole place is a complete blood bath. Zero welfare standards, zero compassion.

"In comparison we used to deliver pigs to slaughterhouses and the welfare levels are immense. Animals were herded without any physical contact at all, if you so much as touched an animal the vet would have you and your company banned from the site immediately and reported to the relevant authorities too.

"The animals are slaughtered with a single bolt to the back of the head. It’s instant and pain free.

"I just thought I’d give some inside information as to what goes on.

"Halal meat is vile and it needs to be banned."

[Bernie @Artemisfornow]

🇬🇧 Let's talk about how much tax payers money has been LOST on cancelled and abandoned government projects over the last 2 years. It's mind blowing.

▪️TRANSPORT
▪A303 Stonehenge/Amesbury £224.7 MILLION loss
▪ A1 Morpeth–Ellingham dualling £67.8 MILLION loss
▪A358 Taunton–Southfields £67.2MILLION loss
▪ A27 Arundel Bypass £66.7 MILLION loss
▪A5036 Princess Way £17.3 MILLION loss
▪M27 Southampton Junction 8 £13.9 MILLION loss
▪A47 Great Yarmouth junction £11.7 MILLION loss
▪A27 Worthing & Lancing £2.6 MILLION loss
▪A12 Chelmsford A120 & A47 Wansford–Sutton £252 MILLION combined loss
▪National Highways 'business management system' £360,000 written off. project was cancelled. oh.

▪️DEFENCE 2025/26 ACCOUNTS
▪Shadow Mk2 - £253.580 MILLION cancelled
▪Project Morpheus - £235.655 MILLION cancelled
▪Project Guardian UKV2 -£9.4 MILLION cancelled
▪Thermal Imaging & Laser - £8.3 MILLION cancelled
▪ Project Janus - £6.020 MILLION cancelled
▪Photovoltaic Farms project -£5.76 MILLION cancelled
▪Software Module project £4.739 MILLIO cancelled
▪Shelf Life Programme - £3.354 MILLION cancelled
▪Commercial Audit Tool - £2.147 MILLION gave up
▪Secondary Facilities Project -£1.500 MILLION terminated
▪ Through Barrier Imaging Systems contract £647k terminated
▪Operational Advantage Centre - £620k cancelled
▪Physical Training Sports Facility at Lossiemouth -£480k cancelled
▪Project at Staxton Wold £463k cancelled
▪Heavy Equipment Transporters project £421k cancelled
▪Test facility project -£397k cancelled
▪Reserve Estate Optimised Programme projects - £385k Didn't bother.
▪Marne Barracks Building Energy Management System £348k cancelled
▪Hurricane & Spitfire building air-conditioning project -£319k cancelled
▪ Project SERAPH cancellation - £1.354 MILLION fruitless payment

Those alone are approximately £536 MILLION.
And then there are the MOD write offs (seriously)
▪ Training equipment they dont need £1.871 MILLION
▪ Cyber Resilience Programme £1.349 MILLION
▪Skyrora V1 launchers surplus - £1.070 MILLION
▪Land Rover fleet reduction - £473k

▪️HOME OFFICE
▪Rwanda partnership payments - £290 MILLION
▪RAF Scampton asylum site - £48.5 MILLION decided not to use it for migrants after the money was spent

▪ Illegal Migration Act IT capabilities that could not be repurposed after the policy changed - £7.2 MILLION
▪Cancelled return flights - £2.1 MILLION
▪Software licences deemed unsuitable and non-cancellable - £1.3 MILLION

▪️JUSTICE
▪Prison capacity build cancelled - £23.996 MILLION
▪ Illegal Migration Act digital development cancelled after government policy changed - £3.526 MILLION
▪HMCTS video-hearing project unresolved technical problems - £3.633 MILLION

▪️ENERGY SECURITY & NET ZERO
▪ UK Atomic Energy Authority test rig - £26.2MILLION
▪ Berkeley Blower House closure £8.968 MILLION
▪ Nuclear Decommissioning Authority equipment purchase which failed during commissioning because of a design failure - £784,470 (moronic)

▪️HOMES ENGLAND
▪Loans-system development - £4.843 MILLION (not in use and there were no plans to complete it).
▪ Document-management-system development - £1.109 MILLION (chose a different solution).
▪ Land disposal system -£360k new system was crap

▪️CABINET OFFICE
▪ Civil Service Jobs Applicant Tracking - £7.767 MILLION

▪️COMPANIES HOUSE
▪Certified Certificates/Certified Copies digital project £620,589 cancelled for being crap
▪ Internal business-system re-platforming project £612,750 cancelled
▪ Register of Overseas Entities digital journey £543,525 cancelled, no longer needed

▪️NATIONAL ARCHIVES
▪Omega digital project -£610k written off

So just these examples of cancelled, written off governments projects in just a few departments has cost taxpayers roughly .... £1.69 BILLION and counting!
No private company could ever work like this, I have no idea if anyone lost their jobs but I bet they got their bonuses!

[Andrew Bridgen @ABridgen]

The Government responded to the petition calling for an end to mandatory Synthetic (manmade chemical ) Folic Acid being added to flour in the UK.

Folic acid fortification is an evidenced public health measure, not a medical intervention. The policy applies to non-wholemeal flour, reflecting the flour-type already subject to fortification.

They are misleading you, just like they did when they told you the Covid ‘vaccines’ were safe and effective.

[Iain Duncan Smith MP Chingford & Woodford Green @MPIainDS]

I’m fed up with hearing Andy Burnham waffle about hope and how wonderful things might be after another election. Labour is in government NOW. Where are the tough decisions? Changing government and reducing the size of the state is critical, absolutely critical, to the health of our economy. You don’t create prosperity by growing government. You create it by allowing people and businesses to create wealth.

[Electroverse @Electroversenet]

Shell's biofuels flagship just hit reality.

In Rotterdam, Shell was building what was meant to be Europe's largest biofuel plant at a cost of €1.2 billion.

The annual output target was 820,000 tons of so-called "sustainable" aviation fuel and "renewable" diesel. The feedstock was supposed to be used frying oil, vegetable oils and animal waste.

The sales pitch was "clean aviation."

Then... construction costs soared and demand stayed weak. So Shell paused the project. Then killed it.

3,000 piles went into the ground, millions of work hours spent, hundreds of millions of euros already sunk.

Now the unfinished plant is up for sale, set to either be dismantled, shipped abroad or sold for parts.

That is the biofuels fairy tale.

[ClarksonsFarm @ClarksonsFarm1]

British beef, milk, lamb and veg do not arrive by magic. They arrive because someone was up before dawn, walking stock through fields that had already burned brown, calculating whether the winter silage would last, and still making payroll when the harvest came in short.

This year has been one of the hardest in living memory for many of them.
Summer 2026 brought the hottest conditions on record and a prolonged drought. Grass stopped growing. Dairy farms in the West Country and elsewhere had to break open clamps meant for winter and buy in feed; one Wiltshire family put the extra cost above £100,000, plus lost milk yield.

Cereal yields collapsed in the worst-hit areas - wheat down by half on some Gloucestershire farms, spring barley and beans more than 50% lower across parts of the South West.

National figures point to one of the lowest cereal harvests on record, with wheat alone estimated hundreds of millions of pounds down in value and livestock producers facing tens of millions more just to replace missing forage. Straw was scarce. Water for irrigation ran short. Farmers described it as soul-destroying and the hardest summer in a generation.

On top of the weather came disease. Bluetongue (BTV-3) produced the worst season yet, with more than 2,200 cases recorded and the virus reaching further north, including into Scotland for the first time.

Sheep and cattle needed constant checking; fallen-stock costs rose; movement and trading became more complicated. Warmer conditions have helped the midges that spread it.

Money has been tight at the same time. Input costs - feed, fertiliser, energy, fuel - have squeezed margins for years. Recent surveys found 87% of farmers saying those costs significantly hit profitability, more than a quarter reporting a loss or break-even, and many others clearing only 1–5%. Average farm incomes after poor seasons have been low.

Cashflow is described as at crisis point on some holdings: money that should have gone into next year’s seed, fertiliser or replacement stock has already been spent keeping animals fed.

Policy has added another layer. Changes to agricultural and business property relief for inheritance tax, due from April 2026, were partially softened after tractor protests (the full-relief threshold rose to £2.5 million, or higher for couples).

Even so, a Country Land and Business Association survey found nearly nine in ten rural family businesses had paused investment - machinery, reservoirs, diversification - because they still expect bills they cannot meet from cash. Some are deliberately shrinking or devaluing holdings. Asset-rich and cash-poor remains the classic farm problem: land and stock look valuable on paper, yet selling a quarter or more of the farm is what many say would be required to pay the tax. Wider policy uncertainty (schemes, trade, environmental rules) is cited by 86% as damaging their ability to plan.

Only a small minority express confidence that Britain can secure its own food supply long-term; around two in five have questioned whether they will still be farming in a decade.

Trade pressure sits underneath it all.

Cheaper imports produced to different standards continue to set the price, so a short domestic harvest does not automatically mean a better return at the farm gate.

None of this is abstract. It is early starts, late finishes, decisions about which animals to keep and which crops are no longer worth drilling, and families trying to hand something viable to the next generation while the weather, the disease risk and the balance sheet all move against them.

Next time the label says “British”, it is worth remembering the people who produced it - through a drought that halved harvests, a disease outbreak that demanded daily vigilance, and costs and tax rules that have left many wondering how long they can keep going.

[Jim Chimirie 🇬🇧 @JChimirie66677]

.@andyburnham, the British public does not need a lecture about global events. We can see what is happening in the world. What we need is a Prime Minister prepared to explain why Britain has been left so dangerously exposed, and what his government intends to do about it. Instead, you offer us Google Maps.

Britain faces a serious energy crisis, households are watching their bills climb, businesses are struggling, and your answer is to tell motorists where they can find petrol a few pence cheaper. A price comparison feature may be useful, but it's not an energy policy. Dressing it up as meaningful government action insults the intelligence of those paying the bills.

You say global events are pushing up prices. Of course they are. But they do not explain every decision taken in Westminster over the past two decades, nor excuse the choices made by your party.

Britain sits on substantial oil and gas resources in the North Sea. Yet we have pursued policies that discourage domestic investment, create uncertainty and increase our dependence on international markets. We impose punitive taxes on producers while relying on their energy. We have allowed domestic capacity to decline without ensuring reliable, affordable alternatives are ready.

And then ministers express astonishment when international disruption sends prices soaring.

Ed Miliband has repeatedly reminded Parliament that Britain is a price taker in global fossil fuel markets. He is correct. But if your government understands that vulnerability, why pursue policies that discourage domestic production and leave us increasingly dependent on imports?

Nobody sensible claims another North Sea well would determine the world oil price. But domestic production matters for security of supply, jobs, tax revenues, investment and reducing dependence on foreign producers. Those benefits do not disappear because oil is traded internationally.

Energy security also requires adequate storage, dependable generating capacity, a functioning electricity grid, nuclear investment and an honest assessment of what the transition to renewables will cost. Energy is the foundation of a modern industrial economy, not merely another opportunity to announce a target.

Your government inherited serious failures from its predecessors. But Labour was elected to govern, not to spend its time explaining why everything is somebody else's fault.

Your party has made its own choices. It has defended restrictions on North Sea exploration, maintained a hostile investment environment for domestic oil and gas, and placed extraordinary faith in a rapid energy transition without adequately answering questions of affordability, reliability and security. Those are political decisions, Mr Burnham. They have consequences.

What makes your message particularly galling is the contrast between the scale of the problem and the triviality of the remedy. People are not worried because they cannot find the cheapest petrol station. They are worried because getting to work, heating their homes, running businesses and buying essentials keeps getting more expensive.

They were promised Labour's energy policies would bring bills down. They were told Britain would become an energy superpower. Yet when another severe price shock arrives, your answer is to shop around. A serious government would review barriers to domestic production, accelerate dependable energy infrastructure, address storage vulnerabilities and publish a credible plan to protect households and industry from prolonged disruption.

So yes, Mr Burnham, global events are driving prices higher. But Britain's vulnerability is not simply an act of God. It reflects years of political choices, including those your party continues to defend. The British people understand the difference between saving a few pence at the pump and securing the energy future of an entire nation. The question is whether their Prime Minister does.

[Bernie @Artemisfornow]

Oh brilliant! … tougher sentences for men who rape children are delayed! because there isn’t enough prison space.

But the man who denies criminal damage after allegedly slashing a migrant dinghy is on remand because they say he poses a “significant risk to public safety.”

Which tells us apparently child rapists aren’t a “significant risk to public safety” then?

[ClarksonsFarm @ClarksonsFarm1]

Charlie Ireland was supposed to meet with representatives of the Labour Party including 'The Labour Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs' to discuss farming & agriculture. They’ve cancelled on him, for the third time.

[James Melville 🚜 @JamesMelville]

This is unbelievable. The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom has offered his solution to rising petrol and gas prices by giving advice to use Google maps to find the cheapest petrol stations. Cutting fuel duty might be a bit more helpful to millions of cash strapped motorists.

[Andrew Neil @afneil]

The Tories are proposing to build an integrated UK air and missile defence network. It’s long overdue. They did nothing about it in the 14 years they were in power. 

Now they promise a £10 billion plan — but only over 10 years. So not exactly a rapid build out. 

But better than the government. Which called missile defence a priority — then allocated under £800m over four years to it. 

This despite the fact a Commons defence committee recently reported we have ‘next to nothing’ when it comes to missile defence.

The Tory plan is to start with protection for critical infrastructure and military bases then build out to protect the UK mainland and British bases overseas. 

A basic capability would be in place in a first Tory term, if there ever is one, with stockpiles and coverage expanded over the following five years. 

A few of the pieces are already in place. Sky Sabre is mobile medium-range interceptor that’s already been deployed to Poland and the Middle East. 

Type 45 destroyers carry Sea Viper interceptors for coastal and fleet defence. 

RAF jets can be scrambled to take out drones and some missiles — though that’s expensive and they can’t deal with ballistic missiles. 

But none of that comes anywhere near a standing national defence against longer-range ballistic missiles, the biggest threat. Nor do we have the necessary stocks of interceptors and counter-drone weapons. 

Some media comment has likened the Tory plan to Israel’s fabled Iron Dome missile defence. But that’s misleading. 

A truly national missile defence would cost a lot more than £10 billion. And Israel’s Iron Dome is much misunderstood. It is not one but three defensive systems for different missile threats. 

The Iron Dome itself has been in operation since 2011 and takes out short-range rockets, artillery and some drones from the likes of Hamas and Hezbollah. Britain doesn’t face such a threat. 

Then there’s David’s Sling which deals with mid-range missiles: cruise missiles, aircraft, drones and tactical ballistic missiles, out to roughly 100–300 km, with the hit-to-kill Stunner missile.

And at the very top — most relevant to the UK but the least discussed here — is Arrow 2 and Arrow 3, sculpted by Israel Aerospace Industries, with US involvement. 

This is the system that takes on medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles. Arrow 2 works inside the atmosphere; Arrow 3 intercepts outside it, above 100 km, at ranges out to about 2,400 km. 

This should be of most interest to Britain. Because threats to us are much more likely to be from longer-range missiles. 

It is significant, though apparently unnoticed by the Tories, that Germany signed up for Arrow 3 in 2023, the first time the Israelis have exported the system under licence. 

The first deployment was made south of Berlin last December. A second site has been announced in Bavaria. 

Germany is planning full operational readiness with sites in the north, centre and south of the country by 2030. Not in 10 years time, as the Tories envisage. 

Just as significant, the cost of the first Arrow 3 deployment was under £3 billion. Total Arrow spend including interceptors and launchers will be under £5 billion. 

Which rather makes it a mystery why nobody in Labour or the Tories is saying we should follow suit — buy off the shelf the most sophisticated, tried and tested missile defence system on the planet. 

Germany will is acquiring Arrow 3 as part of the European Sky Shield Initiative. Which you’d think might appeal to Europhile Labour. The cost should appeal to the Tories. 

At least the Tories have put missile defence on the agenda. Labour, it’s reported this morning in The Times, is still dithering about how to get defence spending to 3% of GDP — and looks like postponing the matter for another year. 

In the current dangerous geopolitical climate that is close to a dereliction of duty which shames the Burnham government. You wonder how John Healey can even look at himself in the mirror

[Electroverse @Electroversenet]

Greenland's ice loss is decelerating.

NASA's GRACE satellites track the full ice sheet: snow, melt, runoff, and ice discharge into the ocean.

That full record exposes the climate alarmist script.

It doesn't show accelerating loss, as claimed, rather it shows decelerating loss. And if the trend continues, recovery comes next.

There is no runaway collapse, no tipping point deadline. Activists warn Greenland is melting into oblivion, but the satellite data say the opposite.

[Lee Nallalingham @LNallalingham]

🚨 Why are auditors questioning £74 MILLION of payments made by DEFRA?

I went through its latest audit to find out.

They have some questions to answer.

Read here: https://t.co/65IexBtD49

[Proudofus.uk @ProudofusUK]

There's an old saying:

"A mine is a hole in the ground with a Cornishman at the bottom of it. ⛏️"

For a hundred years, it was true almost everywhere on earth. 🌍

Cornwall had been mining tin since the Bronze Age.
Its miners built giant engines to pump the water out of the deepest mines. ⚙️

Then, in the 1860s, copper crashed. Tin followed.
The mines closed. Families had a choice. Go hungry. Or go. 💔

Around a quarter of a million people left Cornwall.
To America. To Australia. To South Africa. To Mexico. 🚢

The world called them Cousin Jacks.
The story goes, whenever a boss needed another man, a Cornish miner would say, "My cousin Jack could do that." 😄

In Mexico, they brought their dinner. The pasty.
Mexicans still eat them today. They call them pastes. With chilli in. 🌶️

After their shifts, they kicked a ball about.
They started Mexico's first football club. Pachuca. Still playing today. ⚽

Above the old mines in Mexico, there's a little English cemetery.
Every grave turned to face home. 🙏

They teach you Britain sent soldiers around the world.
Not that it sent miners. With their skills, their football and their dinner. 🇬🇧

A little corner of this island taught the whole world how to dig.

Your country did that. Hardly anyone knows. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Help us tell the world. 👇
https://t.co/rih7iKwnvf

Be Part Of Us. ☝️🇬🇧 Be Proud Of Us. 🙏🇬🇧

[Chris Rose @ArchRose90]

The Met Police weren’t "powerless" when they banned a UKIP march from Tower Hamlets.

The Hampshire Constabulary wasn’t "powerless" when they placed a section.34 over Gosport.

British police have the power but don’t apply it consistently. That’s two-tier policing.

[Benonwine @benonwine]

Stephen Gray gave nearly 30 years to Cleveland Police. He and his wife foster children. At 65 he has a criminal record because he reposted a meme.

The post said: “Fun facts about bacon! People who eat bacon have a lower chance of marrying a 9-year-old!”

He told the court it was satire, pointed at the traditional account of Muhammad’s marriage to Aisha, and meant to start an argument about child marriage. A district judge called it “grossly offensive,” said the jokey tone meant it could not be a serious point, and fined him a bit over £1,000.

The Crown Prosecution Service first said there was no case. A neighbour he was already rowing with over a sewage pipe asked for a review. Then there was a case.

England abolished blasphemy in 2008. It has not abolished the habit. A man who spent his working life enforcing the law can now be branded a criminal for a Facebook repost that hundreds of other people shared and walked away from.

That is not public order.

That is a state that has decided some facts are too awkward to joke about, and some people are too ordinary to protect. Stephen Gray is appealing.

He should not have to. We now live in a totalitarian state.

[The Free Speech Union @SpeechUnion]

🚨 The Government has imposed a de facto Islamic blasphemy law by the back door — and almost certainly allowed Islamist extremists to influence the process.

At the start of the year, the Free Speech Union revealed that all five members of the Government’s working group had troubling links to Islamist organisations, including the Muslim Council of Britain and MEND. Successive governments have had a policy of non-engagement with both since 2009, citing concerns about their views.

A Freedom of Information request by Shadow Justice Secretary @NJ_Timothy revealed that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) had said it deleted all responses to the Working Group’s consultation, which informed the drafting of the definition. That appeared to conflict with the Government’s own data policy, which requires key information of historical importance to be retained for 20 years.

The Free Speech Union sent MHCLG a pre-action protocol letter, threatening judicial review unless the department disclosed who had been given the opportunity to influence the definition.

After considerable delay, MHCLG has written back to @SpeechUnion and admitted that they had located ‘at least one available copy of the dataset’.

This is a shocking revelation — and raises serious questions about the handling of the process.
Angela Rayner must come clean.

Why did officials originally claim that the data had been deleted?

If it has been deleted, and subsequently “recovered”, why did this happen, and why did they attempt to hide behind data protection legislation?

Did the Government allow extremists to influence the drafting of a definition that has had a chilling effect on free speech — and then mislead the public about what happened to the consultation responses?

The public deserves to know the truth.

[Bernie @Artemisfornow]

WTAF! … as we all get poorer the government continues to piss away our tax!

The Cabinet Office has just written off £7.7 MILLION on a recruitment system it abandoned. But that isn’t even the total amount!

The stupid ‘reset’ will cost taxpayers £26–£38 MILLION and they’ve already spent £9m in Civil Service staffing costs! (For a platform no department will ever use!!)

But “lessons have been learnt”…

No private business could ever operate in this way. It’s disgusting 💣

[Jim Chimirie 🇬🇧 @JChimirie66677]

The Evidence Wasn't Deleted. So Publish It

For months, the government's answer to who shaped its new definition of anti-Muslim hostility was simple: the evidence was gone. It never was.

Will Garton, director general at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, has confirmed in writing that more extensive searches, including technical work by departmental IT specialists, found that "the underlying Call for Evidence response dataset is still held on Departmental systems." Nick Timothy was first told the material wasn't held. He kept pushing. The department eventually discovered that it was.

This isn't some incidental pile of correspondence. The government's own published account calls the working group's evidence gathering "significant" and says the Call for Evidence "forms the basis of the definition that the government is now adopting." If this evidence underpins a definition ministers want organisations across Britain to use, the public has an obvious interest in knowing who submitted it and how it shaped the outcome, personal data protected where the law requires.

Questions about the process predate the dataset reappearing. Rayner appointed Dominic Grieve to chair the supposedly independent group despite Grieve having written the foreword to the 2018 APPG report proposing the earlier Islamophobia definition. Akeela Ahmed, a panel member, had publicly championed that same definition. Harder to find among the five members is any voice for the free-speech or secularist case. Sir John Jenkins, a former ambassador the group approached, refused to take part, believing its direction already appeared predetermined.

There's also a question ministers haven't properly answered. In June, James Cleverly asked specifically whether MEND, CAGE, the Muslim Association of Britain or the Muslim Council of Britain had submitted written evidence. The government replied that the consultation was open to everyone, that the department hadn't engaged with those groups, and that the working group hadn't met them. Cleverly hadn't asked who they'd met. He asked who had submitted evidence.

That distinction matters. An organisation doesn't need to sit across a table from Grieve to shape an open consultation. It only needs to send a submission. That alone doesn't prove the process was captured, even though it might look that way. It does mean transparency matters more, not less, and the records now survive to provide it. Publish the submissions, redact what the law requires, and let the public see who tried to shape this definition.

The deeper problem goes beyond Islamophobia. A department built national policy on what it calls a substantial evidence exercise. When an opposition MP sought the material, officials said it wasn't held. Only further pressure and a forensic search found it was. Garton's letter says ministers weren't involved in handling or retention decisions, so there's no evidence yet that ministers ordered anything concealed. There's every reason to ask how an official FOI process missed evidence important enough to justify government policy.

The government can no longer claim disclosure is impossible because the evidence vanished. Its own director general confirms it survives. If the process was as rigorous as ministers maintain, publishing it should only prove that. If it wasn't, the public deserves to know that too.

The question was never really where the evidence went. It's why, now the government admits it still has it, the country still isn't allowed to see it.

"Rayner appointed Dominic Grieve to chair the supposedly independent group despite Grieve having written the foreword to the 2018 APPG report proposing the earlier Islamophobia definition."