UK
Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead
Yesterday
One might even say the Sun makes a mockery of its own article by ending on such a sensible note.
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This week, the Sun dug deep into its culture war crusade, publishing an exposé about so-called “woke waste,” taxpayer money allegedly squandered on research into “whiteness” and the protection of women accused of witchcraft.
According to its melodramatic article, £16.5 million is being “funnelled” into 21 “woke” projects at UK universities.
Among the supposedly scandalous studies singled out was £85,000 spent on a Newcastle University project entitled Combating Witchcraft-Related Violence Through Song, which investigates how music can support elderly women in South Africa who face violence after being labelled “witches,” a fate often tied to misogyny and ageism. Clearly, supporting marginalised women in the Global South is beyond the Sun’s understanding of public value.
Equally shocking, the paper suggests, is over £1 million allocated to a University of Nottingham project on decolonising colonial-era photography from British Malaya, and £246,000 to a Sheffield University app exploring how monuments in Chile reflect and perpetuate historical notions of “whiteness.” The Sun derides this as “woke waste”, conveniently ignoring how such research develops critical understanding of systemic racism and the legacies of empire.
Also included in the hit list is £783,000 for a Queen Mary University project on “military decarbonisation,” because reducing the environmental footprint of defence, apparently, is too radical. And £379,000 for a Birkbeck College study on children’s craft-making practices in West Africa.
All of this was “uncovered” by DOGE UK founder Charlotte Gill, who said taxpayers will be “fuming” to see where their cash goes, though the article doesn’t include any “fuming” taxpayers’ views.
“Unfortunately, this is just the tip of the iceberg, with thousands of similar taxpayer-funded grants being awarded under the UKRI – never mind the vast sums spent on the rest of the public sector,” she said:
As the Telegraph keenly reported earlier this year, Charlotte Gill is an investigative journalist who founded and runs Woke Waste, a website that examines taxpayer funded grants to charities and institutions. She describes herself on X as running ‘DOGE UK’, DOGE being the Department of Government Efficiency in Trump’s administration, formerly run by X owner Elon Musk.
Gill then takes aim at the Arts Council, trotting out Soho Theatre’s support for productions like 52 Monologues for Young Transsexuals as yet more evidence of “woke madness.”
At least the Sun did offer some semblance of balance, all but a token gesture, by including a brief quote from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), which funds the projects in question. UKRI explains that these grants are peer-reviewed and designed to tackle “global challenges in a complex and interconnected world.”
“Projects are prioritised for funding through independent expert peer review, as set out in the Higher Education and Research Act.”
That final paragraph, quoting UKRI’s defence of international research and expert-led funding decisions, rather undermines the entire outraged narrative. One might even say the Sun makes a mockery of its own article by ending on such a sensible not
Smear of the week – Telegraph claims Andy Burnham is doing more damage to Labour than Jeremy Corbyn
In yet another head-scratching, ‘look twice’ headline from the Telegraph’s ongoing campaign to sow division on the left, columnist Tom Harris declared that Andy Burnham is doing more damage to Labour than Jeremy Corbyn.
Harris, a former Labour MP who lost his seat in 2015 and has since reinvented himself as a mouthpiece for the right-wing press, claims Burnham is “keen to burnish his soft-Left political credentials by jumping on the anti-cuts bandwagon.”
Harris took over the Telegraph’s left-bashing column from Dan Hodges, who decamped to the Daily Mail. Skwawkbox has described Harris as “a hardened opponent of Jeremy Corbyn.” But his vendetta seems to have moved beyond Corbyn and is now redirected at any Labour figure who dares to question Keir Starmer and add to the general unsettling of the currently deeply disturbed Labour ranks.
Harris also takes aim at the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, who encouraged Labour MPs to rebel over the disability benefits cuts, and Andy Burnham, who, according to Harris is “another aspiring party leader.”
The author lumps the two Labour leaders together as troublemakers with national profiles, all but accusing them of undermining the party purely out of personal ambition.
“Starmer must be wondering if the last Labour government’s (and the last Tory one’s) eagerness to set up powerful mayors across the country was wise after all,” Harris sneers.
The former MP offers no consideration that Burnham or Khan might actually hold principled positions and that the idea that resisting attacks on disabled people might be a moral imperative, rather than a political manoeuvre.
And as for the comparison to Jeremy Corbyn? Equally as head scratching. As we know, the “damage” Corbyn did to Labour is a contested narrative, depending largely on who’s telling the story.
Fortunately, readers saw through Harris’s column. One comment under the article summed up the mood:
“Usual Torygraph bollox.”
“Burnham has always been a supporter of the disabled and underdogs in general. It’s a shame the Snottygraph never does,” was another.
Today
Right-Wing Watch
Left Foot Forward
The former MP offers no consideration that Burnham or Khan might actually hold principled positions and that the idea that resisting attacks on disabled people might be a moral imperative, rather than a political manoeuvre.
Right-Wing Watch
Left Foot Forward
The former MP offers no consideration that Burnham or Khan might actually hold principled positions and that the idea that resisting attacks on disabled people might be a moral imperative, rather than a political manoeuvre.
In yet another head-scratching, ‘look twice’ headline from the Telegraph’s ongoing campaign to sow division on the left, columnist Tom Harris declared that Andy Burnham is doing more damage to Labour than Jeremy Corbyn.
Harris, a former Labour MP who lost his seat in 2015 and has since reinvented himself as a mouthpiece for the right-wing press, claims Burnham is “keen to burnish his soft-Left political credentials by jumping on the anti-cuts bandwagon.”
Harris took over the Telegraph’s left-bashing column from Dan Hodges, who decamped to the Daily Mail. Skwawkbox has described Harris as “a hardened opponent of Jeremy Corbyn.” But his vendetta seems to have moved beyond Corbyn and is now redirected at any Labour figure who dares to question Keir Starmer and add to the general unsettling of the currently deeply disturbed Labour ranks.
Harris also takes aim at the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, who encouraged Labour MPs to rebel over the disability benefits cuts, and Andy Burnham, who, according to Harris is “another aspiring party leader.”
The author lumps the two Labour leaders together as troublemakers with national profiles, all but accusing them of undermining the party purely out of personal ambition.
“Starmer must be wondering if the last Labour government’s (and the last Tory one’s) eagerness to set up powerful mayors across the country was wise after all,” Harris sneers.
The former MP offers no consideration that Burnham or Khan might actually hold principled positions and that the idea that resisting attacks on disabled people might be a moral imperative, rather than a political manoeuvre.
And as for the comparison to Jeremy Corbyn? Equally as head scratching. As we know, the “damage” Corbyn did to Labour is a contested narrative, depending largely on who’s telling the story.
Fortunately, readers saw through Harris’s column. One comment under the article summed up the mood:
“Usual Torygraph bollox.”
“Burnham has always been a supporter of the disabled and underdogs in general. It’s a shame the Snottygraph never does,” was another.
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