Outside the system
Month: October 2026
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The Conviction of Estonia’s ‘Lord Haw-Haw’ Links Russian Intelligence to Moscow’s Interference in Brexit
A ‘diplomat’ who launched the ‘Conservative Friends of Russia’ group has now been identified as a Russian intelligence officer involved in an attempted European disinformation campaign
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Mod-Backed Drone Maker Bought by US Group Now Developing Attack Drones for Israel
The owners of the British drone maker, which has received UK Government funding, has put former Mossad chief David Barnea in charge of its defence arm.
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Three Labour Peers Spoke at a Festival Sponsored by a Reform Mega-Donor – And Which Hosted a Far-Right Bookshop
Labour MP Phil Brickell says “no respectable person” should be associated with the event and accuses his colleagues of “legitimising” Reform’s billionaire crypto donor
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‘We Intend to Succeed’: French Student Protesters Explain Why They’re at the Barricades
French students in Paris tell Byline Times why they’ve joined the protests hitting the headlines around the world
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John Berger at 100
Peter Jukes celebrates the centenary of the birth of John Berger – one of the figures who inspires Byline Times’ analysis on the ideas we think with
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Puzzle Solutions – Edition 91
Puzzle Solutions – Edition 91 Crossword Across: 1 GENERAL (normal) + ASSEMBLY (diet) = GENERAL ASSEMBLY (that you’ll get at the UN 9 KID (joke) reversed (around) + odd letters of ToAsT = DIKTAT (order) 10 ME (from the clue) + PH IS (pub’s) + TO(o) minus last letter (closing…early) = MEPHISTO (it’s the devil)…
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We Speak Therefore We Are
John Mitchinson finds inspiration in a book that explores why linguistic diversity is the key to a healthy culture
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And Now for Something Real
There was a sentiment Andy Burnham kept returning to when I interviewed him last July at Byline Festival.
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‘Nothing Embodies the Nightmarish Oppression of the “Liberal Elite” More Than the Vast, Impersonal, Know-All, Toxic AI Sheds’
The great Trump bubble is bursting. A frightful revenge may be the consequence. But an irreversible collapse of the MAGA movement is underway, registered on his – neither true nor social – site, Truth Social.
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‘Glaringly Absent From Burnham’s Speech Was the Climate and Nature Emergency’
‘Andy Burnham is the crowning achievement of Zack Polanski”. In an echo of Thatcher’s famous verdict on Tony Blair, that was just one of the more colourful assessments of the Greens’ impact that were doing the rounds at its Conference. And there was more to it than mere rhetorical flourish.
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Silence and Sponsorship
Why has a prestigious education title published nothing on the recent scrutiny of former Reform UK academic James Orr? Samantha Asumadu reports
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The Chatbot and the Bureaucrat
Will AI end humanity or save it? It may be more mundane than that, writes James Bloodworth
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‘I Wonder What It Is About the Billionaire Media Tycoon That Has Kept Him So Appealing All These Years?’
My grandfather, Gordon Briggs, died on 18 September 2026. He was two days away from turning 95. On the day he was born, the Government abandoned the gold standard.
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Inside the notebook of Josiah Mortimer, Chief Reporter
When Kemi Badenoch railed against Reform UK’s “authoritarian” blocking of journalists from its conference this summer, we rather hoped she might U-turn on her party’s own decision to bar Byline Times from the Conservatives’ gathering. No such luck.
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Otto English As Jacob Rees-Mogg
My old chum, the Honourable Algernon Cockburn-Butts, recently rang out of the blue. I hadn’t spoken to Algie in years but one’s initial thrill at hearing his familiar voice soon turned to vexation when he informed me in trembling tones that he was “reaching out” to impart some “personal” news.
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‘I Found It Easy to Pray at St George’s, Feeling the Weight of the Millions of Prayers That Must Have Been Dispatched to God’
In 1588, the year of the Armada, Philip II of Spain was the most powerful monarch in the world. Forty years later, Spain went bust with the English and the Dutch squabbling over the carcass of the first global superpower. The British Empire reached its greatest territorial extent in 1922. A quarter of a century…
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Voters Are Turning on Trump but Caution Is Required
The unpopular President may yet try to steal this November’s midterms as the consequences of his mistakes pile up, writes Rick Wilson
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The Smoke Behind the Sunbeds
Can anything stop Brits booking getaways to a burning continent buckling under ‘hyper-tourism’? By Kamin Mohammadi
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Bonnie Greer: Never Nobody But Herself
Stephen Colegrave pays tribute to our much-loved contributor who died in September
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Democrats Are Playing With the AI Fire
Involving the companies wanting to frame regulation in their favour in funding and safety initiatives is a dangerous game, writes Matt Gallagher
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‘We’re Trying to Normalise Changing One’s Mind’
Rich Logis was as deep into MAGA as a Trump supporter can be. Until he left. He speaks to Hardeep Matharu about the organisation he has created to help others exit the ‘extremist group’ – and to repent
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‘Reform’s Crypto Millions Expose the Choice Facing Burnham in Rebuilding Britain’s Democracy’
Neoliberalism has always been about who controls the tenets of our political economy, writes Labour’s Clive Lewis MP
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Saying the ‘Unsayable’: Russian Interference
Andy Burnham has broken a decade of establishment silence over Putin’s plan to get Britain out of the EU. Peter Jukes reports
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Taking Back Control From the Culture Warriors
The decision to leave the EU heralded a decade of damage for the UK. Since 2016, the British economy has shrunk by approximately 8% compared with what it would have been had the UK remained in the European Union, with trade down a striking 18% compared with previous forecasts.
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UK Universities Accused of ‘Silencing’ Pro-Palestinian Students and Academics
Suspensions, campus bans and threats to the visa status of students are being imposed for chanting, clapping and wearing keffiyehs, human rights group says
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Jason Arday Again Cleared of Plagiarism as His Attackers Launch an ‘Independent Inquiry’
Backed by Reform UK megadonor Ben Delo, the Committee for Academic Freedom defended Arday’s accusers and has now commissioned a report into his appointment by Cambridge University
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‘Andy Burnham Has an Opportunity to Lead the Fight Against Russian Interference’
Successive governments have failed to act against Moscow’s pernicious influence on our politics. The new Prime Minister must seize this opportunity to change that, argues former Labour MP Ian Lucas
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‘Trump’s Russia Strategy Is Opening Himself Up to an Inevitable Humiliation’
The US President’s abject surrender to Putin’s demands on Ukraine will only end badly for the White House, argues Paul Niland
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Reform UK’s Crypto Billionaire Donor Could Profit From Military Exports to Israel Approved After Arms Suspension
British Defence firm QinetiQ, which Christopher Harborne owns a large stake in, received a military export licence involving Israel long after the UK suspended certain arms sales to the country
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The Media ‘Manufactured’ Millionaire Exodus From UK, Campaigners Tell IPSO in Open Letter
Eleven campaign groups write to the official regulator demanding an investigation, saying eight newspapers misrepresented a discredited study in their reporting
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What Ukraine’s Strikes On Data Centres Really Revealed About Russian Information Warfare
Suggestions that Ukraine’s attack on a Russian data decimated social media ‘bots’ failed to understand how Moscow’s misinformation campaigns really work, reports Caroline Orr Bueno
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Mysterious Right-Wing Think Tank Demanding Charity ‘Transparency’ Won’t Say Who Runs or Funds It
EXCLUSIVE: A group with no legal status and using fake names for the authors of its first published report, has won widespread media coverage, despite refusing to say who is behind it
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James Orr, Silence, and Sponsorship: Hungary Confirms End of Media Agreement with ‘Times Higher Education’
Orr, the former Reform UK policy chief, praised the Hungarian Government led by Viktor Orbán as a ‘counterexample to the ideology in my own country that rejects national pride’
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A Short History of Trump’s Long-Held Connections to Russia
The President’s deep ties to Russian interests require far greater scrutiny given his ongoing betrayal of Ukraine, argues Zarina Zabrisky
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Former Ofcom Standards Chief Condemns Watchdog’s ‘Two Tier’ Approach to GB News
Former regulator calls for a clampdown as Andy Burnham’s Government tells Byline Times that ministers are now ‘exploring what action to take’ about MPs like Nigel Farage double-jobbing as presenters on GB News
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How Reform UK’s Leaders Embraced Far- Right Racists
As Nigel Farage’s party faces a new racism scandal, Byline Times investigations reveal how Nigel Farage and his senior colleagues have long cultivated extremist allies and promoted their far-right ideas
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The BBC’s Dangerous Attempt to Balance Truth With Lies
When you have one side lying and the other side trying to tell the truth, the BBC’s misguided approach to balance inevitably favours the liar, argues former BBC reporter and producer Patrick Howse
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Reform UK’s Richard Tice’s Property Firm Pays £800,000 in Dividends Despite Falling Profits
Quidnet REIT, which Nigel Farage’s Deputy controls, made a pre-tax loss in 2025, but still paid shareholders more than three times its adjusted earnings
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Far-Right Bookshop Praised by Reform’s James Orr Faces Police Warning Over ‘Racist’ Post About Muslim Men
Oldspeak, which sells Hitler’s speeches and flew a ‘Remigration Now’ flag, has been endorsed by senior right-wing figures, including Lord Frost, James Orr and Tommy Robinson
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Reform’s ‘Independent’ Donations Inquiry Was Led By The Lawyer Who Defended Donald Trump Over Russian Collusion
Reform UK said its internal inquiry would proceed “independently and without prejudice” yet it was led by a barrister who has previously represented Nigel Farage and Donald Trump
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Brexit Turning Point as MPs Line Up to Make the Case for Rejoining the EU
Parliamentarians cite Russian interference and post-Brexit red tape, as Andy Burnham opens up a debate which Westminster has avoided for a decade
