Paul Knaggs

The 1966 Aberfan Disaster, one of Britain's most tragic mining disasters, where a collapsing mountain of coal waste killed 116 school children. The last sounds heard in Pantglas Junior School were children's voices raised in excited chatter about the coming half-term holiday. No one heard the mountain move. On that fog-shrouded Friday morning of October 21, 1966, mothers stood in doorways...

“Freedom of the press, if it means anything at all, means the freedom to criticize and oppose.” ― George Orwell The Arrest of Asa Winstanley: UK's War on Independent Journalism When ten Metropolitan Police officers descended on journalist Asa Winstanley's North London home before dawn, they weren't hunting for terrorists. They were hunting for words. This raid, conducted under the guise of...

A Bitter Pill to Swallow: Labour's Dystopian 'Make Work Pay' Scheme Is this what passes for progressive policy in 21st century Britain - doling out weight loss drugs to the unemployed? Have we truly sunk so low that we now seek to medicate away the symptoms of an unjust economic system rather than treat the disease itself? Sir Keir Starmer's Labour...

‘Surrender or starve’ strategy displacing thousands amounts to crimes against humanity On Saturday morning, the Israeli military’s Arabic spokesman posted a chilling message on social media: residents of the ‘D5’ area in northern Gaza must move south immediately. The area, split into dozens of blocks on a grid drawn by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), had been labelled a “dangerous...

France and Italy summoned Israeli ambassadors after UN peacekeepers struck by Israeli forces French Ministry for Foreign Affairs says Israel’s targeting of UNIFIL troops was “deliberate.” PARIS — France and Italy are demanding answers from Israeli envoys after United Nations peacekeepers in south Lebanon were wounded in separate incidents on Thursday and Friday, amid Israel's expanding ground invasion of its northern neighbour Lebanon. The two...

Labour's Employment Bill: A Charade of Progress Here we are, a quarter of the way into the 21st century, with a Labour government wielding a 404-seat majority - a parliamentary juggernaut with the power to reshape Britain's economic landscape. And what do we find? certainly not the bold, transformative policies you would expect from such unfettered authority, but rather another...

The Supreme Court's Gender Debate: Can We Redefine Biological Reality? Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man stands as a testament to Renaissance ideals - a masterpiece that melds art, science, and philosophy. Within its elegant lines, we see humanity perfectly balanced between the divine circle and the earthly square, a microcosm of the universe itself. This vision, grounded in both philosophical...

After a Year of Bloodshed in Gaza: We have one word to give. "ENOUGH!" After the initial horrors of October 7th 2023 what has followed for twelve long months is the world witnessed the unrelenting destruction of Gaza, a campaign of such brutality that it makes a mockery of the very concept of 'self-defence' and 'proportionate response'. Night after night,...

The Mandarin War: Sue Gray Vs The McSweeney Boys Sue Gray - the very woman who once held Boris Johnson's feet to the fire over Partygate - now finds herself victim of a Mandarin civil war. Her resignation as Prime Minister Starmer's chief of staff, barely three months into Labour's tenure, speaks volumes about the rot festering at the heart...

Breaking Silence: Assange Warns of a Dark Crossroad for Journalism In a room thick with tension and unspoken truths, Julian Assange - that thorn in the side of the powerful - finally broke his silence. After years of confinement, caught up in a 'Kafkaesque' nightmare, the WikiLeaks founder addressed the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. His words, though...