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A TalkTV presenter has denied assaulting a climate protester at a Republican dinner during Donald Trump's visit last week, after being filmed dragging him from the room.

During a Republicans Overseas dinner organised by TalkTV host André Walker last Tuesday (16th September) in Windsor - the night President Trump arrived in the UK - Fossil Free London interrupted the event with founder Robin Wells attempting to give a speech about the climate crisis and Donald Trump's threats to the environment.

She was joined by campaigner and doctor Kush Naker. Both unfurled a banner, and began chanting: "If you drill baby drill, how many will you kill?" The pair had infiltrated the event with valid tickets.

Video taken by other protesters present shows several attendees approaching the two activists, and one appears to pull a banner from Naker's hand.

TalkTV host André Walker is then shown approaching Naker, grabbing him by the arm. Naker drops to the floor.

With another attendee, Walker is shown dragging Naker from the main dining hall, with Naker lying on his back, through a lobby into a separate room on the other side. When Naker has been dragged into the room, the door is closed.

Naker alleges that while he was on the floor Walker got on his knees on top of him and reached for his neck, as if trying to strangle him.

He further alleges that Walker tried to swing several punches at him whilst he was on the ground, which he claims he prevented by grabbing Walker's wrists.

And Naker claims the host then moved his knee towards Kush's groin, in what Naker took to be an attempt to knee him in the genitals. Naker says he responded by trapping Walker's leg between his own.

According to Naker, the altercation lasted for about a minute until, he says, Walker became exhausted from their struggle.

Separately, footage filmed by a journalist present shows Fossil Free London's director Robin Wells being slapped twice by an unknown attendee. Wells repeats the phrase: "That's assault" afterwards as the woman walks away.

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Naker says he asked a venue staff member to call the police. The venue has confirmed that a member of staff did call the police. Thames Valley Police has been contacted for comment.

Walker denies any allegations of assault. In a call with Byline Times, he said: "The quote I would always give is always the same: I strongly believe in free speech, and when somebody attempts to subvert that by shouting people down, I would stop it."

He added: "There are no criminal allegations. They haven't made any. The only people they've phoned are you. Always remember something - if you start printing a load of allegations against me in the absence of any evidence, you'll just look like a dickhead. And also, how would you feel if it happened to you?"

A source close to Walker said: "The claim that André 'assaulted' (a criminal offence) or that he attempted to 'punch', 'kick', or 'strangle' anyone is defamatory and untrue. There is video evidence that proves that it cannot be so [it is not clear what evidence they are referring to]. We do not consider that reporting the allegation and denial would be lawful."

Walker is understood to argue that nobody stopped the activist "until he started shouting." In video footage after the altercation Walker repeats "I'm nearly 50" and that he is "absolutely knackered."

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Reform's Promise

It sounds simple, almost seductive. Scrap "illegal migration", close the hotels, deport those with no right to be here - and save taxpayers £42 billion over the next decade and £243bn over 80 years. That's the promise Reform UK makes the centrepiece of its immigration policy.

But the OBR has already shown that drastic cuts to migration will be net negative for the economy. We build on this analysis to show how Reform UK's own numbers reveal not hundreds of billions of savings, but a trillion pound blackhole.

Nigel Farage's previous pledge for a hard Brexit led to trade frictions, reduced labour mobility, and low investment - and shattered EU agreements that had kept the small boats crisis at bay.

Now, our analysis suggests his new plan would strike a further blow to Britain's teetering economy.

Where Is the Opposition to Nigel Farage's Immoral Mass Deportation Plan?

Keir Starmer's Government's refusal to explicitly condemn the Reform leader's plans to tear thousands of families and communities apart is only clearing his path to Downing Street, argues Adam Bienkov

Adam Bienkov

In its official blueprint, Operation Restoring Justice, the party pledges to "end illegal migration" by ripping up Britain's obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the Refugee Convention, pushing through a new "Mass Deportation Bill", and creating a new UK Deportation Command.

Within 18 months, they say, Britain would have 24,000 new detention places and be running up to five deportation flights every day. Offshore camps on Ascension Island are floated as a fallback.

Their document claims the plan would save taxpayers "over £7 billion in five years" and £42 billion in a decade - money they say is currently squandered on asylum seekers in hotels.

The Reality

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) - the body that audits the public finances - concludes the opposite. In its March 2024 outlook, the OBR shows that cutting net migration raises Government borrowing by around £13-20 billion within five years, because migrants are mostly of prime working age, pay about £19,500 per adult per year in taxes, and generate £4.1bn a year in visa fees and surcharges.

In short, lower migration worsens the public finances, not the reverse.

Byline Times stress-tested Reform UK's numbers against the OBR's modelling. We found that instead of delivering a £42 billion windfall over a decade, the plan generates the opposite.

We found that over five years, the economy would be about £49bn smaller, while the Home Office would face £7bn in direct costs for detention, flights and enforcement, according to analysis of OBR projections.

The smaller economy also implies a £17bn shortfall in tax receipts, but this is a fiscal consequence of the GDP loss. Projected forward, by 2035, the drag rises to an economy £63-81bn smaller, plus £4-10bn in direct Exchequer costs, with £23-29bn less tax revenue embedded in the GDP loss.

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Farage claimed that their plan would save £234 billion over the lifetime of the average migrant (around 80 years), a figure taken from the Thatcherite think tank, the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS). However, the CPS later withdrew the figures as "erroneous". Pressed about this, Farage doubled down, insisting the real savings would be even higher.

We do not believe it's very meaningful to project, as Reform has, over an 80-year p...

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Billed as 'the Philosopher behind JD Vance', Curtis Yarvin appeared in conversation with former New Labour communications chief and hit podcast co-host Alastair Campbell at the philosophy, comedy, and music festival How the Light Gets In in London on Sunday.

The discussion was wide-ranging but fairly random, covering the political blogger Yarvin's distrust of democracy and his belief that CEOs should take over the state in the form of a modern monarchy.

In his provocative style, Yarvin twice told the audience that he refers to the UK as 'YUK', and wondered whether late-night London is now more dangerous than it was in Elizabethan times.

What the event did not explore was Yarvin's more controversial views as expressed extensively through his writings.

When Byline Times asked Yarvin, during questions from the audience, about his use of an AI app to display the N-word on his phone while at a meeting with Labour peer Lord Maurice Glasman - as documented by the New Yorker - he did not dispute that this happened, but compared the use of the inflammatory pejorative to blasphemy, adding that "no words should be kryptonite".

Asked whether he was an advocate of 'pseudo-science' on racial differences in intelligence, Yarvin disputed that his writings were in any way more unscientific than the 'blank slate' theory that all "children were born interchangeable".

He appeared to double-down on his theory by noting that the majority of the audience for his discussion was white - as if this was proof of anything but the cultural milieu of the festival.

Though Yarvin - whose thinking is highly regarded by US Vice President JD Vance and leading Silicon Valley investor and Trump supporter Peter Thiel - refused to answer any follow-up questions after the event, and Byline Times was blocked by two security guards who whisked him away, this newspaper has examined his writings in detail.

"How dangerous is it that we are being linked? One reassuring thought: one of our hidden advantages is that these people wouldn't believe in a conspiracy if it hit them over the head."

A 2014 letter from Peter Thiel to Curtis Yarvin, quoted in the New Yorker

Heredity and Caste

Yarvin's suggestion that use of the N-word is akin to blasphemy coincides with his assertion - documented across nearly two decades of writing - that the principle that all human populations are innately equal is a liberal 'superstition'.

This is a core theme of his blog, which originally appeared pseudonymously under the moniker 'Mencius Moldbug'.

In a 2009 chapter of his Gentle Introduction to Unqualified Reservations, Yarvin relabelled a belief in human equality as "human neurological uniformity" and divided the world into two camps: "credulists", clinging blindly to the belief that "genetic differences between races (if the term is even acknowledged) are of no behavioural significance"; and "denialists" who accept that inherited racial group differences or what he calls "patterns of genotype-phenotype correlation in behavioural traits of modern human subpopulations".

Yarvin reproduced Scottish philosopher David Hume's claim in a footnote of his 1753 essay Of National Characters that "negroes" are naturally inferior and riffs on it, sneering that to repeat it today merely brands a man a "racist". More than 250 years ago, the slave-trading abolitionist James Beattie singled it out in Hume's remarks as an example of prejudice in his 1770 Essay on Truth.

Yarvin also regularly uses the derogatory term "negro" to describe black people, no less than 29 times in one article alone

As to the relevance of these outdated ideas of heredity to modern Americans, Yarvin has resurrected an even more ancient philosophy: the Hindu tradition of reincarnation and caste.

He has written that the US consists of: Brahmins (elite liberal white people in uni...

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Backers of the fledgling new left-wing group temporarily known as 'Your Party' have expressed grave concerns over the public disagreements between backers of potential leaders Corbyn and Sultana.

Over 260 supporters of Your Party gathered online on Tuesday to discuss the fraught formation of the MPs Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana's yet-to-be-permanently-named movement.

The call, organised by the 'Campaign for Mass Workers' Party', saw socialist supporters of the new initiative, including film-maker Ken Loach, hit out at the open warfare at the top of the organisation.

Last Thursday, Sultana launched a membership portal for the new left-wing party, only for Corbyn and fellow Independent Alliance MPs to quickly disavow it as "unauthorised" and seek legal advice. Sultana threatened to bring in defamation lawyers to contest statements from the other independent MPs involved.

Corbyn's allies threatened to report her actions to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). Sultana has now withdrawn her threat of legal action but questions remain over any potential ICO probe.

The extraordinary affair saw Sultana complain of being "sidelined" by her colleagues and being "effectively frozen out of the official accounts." "I have been subjected to what can only be described as a sexist boys' club", she said in a statement. The other five 'Independent Alliance' who are part of the project MPs are all men.

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In the mass supporters' call on Tuesday, which Sultana was due to attend but pulled out amid a "family emergency", host and veteran left-wing activist Audrey White said: "The working class know what betrayal is. We've been through too much to have that again."

White was a British former shopworker and trade unionist who has been credited with successfully pushing for landmark anti-sexual harassment legislation in the UK.

She later stated to Corbyn and Sultana: "You can come along with us if you want. [But] the battles aren't on the pages of The Guardian. This is our party."

White also raised concerns about financial transparency, saying: "There's no accounting for where the money is going" after Sultana's membership launch saw a reported 20,000 supporters sign up, with some paying up to £55 a year. Corbyn and his allies insisted they would be cancelled and given refunds, while The Guardian reported that a 'soft launch' of membership is still being planned ahead of a conference in November.

Filmmaker and activist Ken Loach - who was expelled from Labour in 2021 over alleged links to campaign groups banned within the Labour Party - told attendees: "Those responsible for the manoeuvring should simply hang their heads in shame. It's simply unacceptable. It fulfils a caricature that we suffer from the right-wing press…The power must stay at the bottom, it can't stay at the top."

Loach later added that while he respects both Corbyn and Sultana: "If they're not going to do it right, they need to step aside."

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Left-wing former Labour MP Claudia Webb (who was also booted from the party after being convicted of harassment in 2021) claimed that "Labour doesn't fight Reform [UK], it imitates them."

She argued a "revolutionary moment" has arrived in Britain. "We have 800,000 voices declaring that socialism is not a distant dream. This is not a project formed in back rooms. Every policy is forged in struggle. The bill...

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Nigel Farage on Monday announced plans to deport hundreds of thousands of people living and working legally in the UK.

His plan to force those already granted indefinite leave to remain, to reapply under much stricter rules would put the future of many thousands of our neighbours, relatives, friends and colleagues in doubt.

Across the UK thousands of families, communities, public services and businesses would risk being torn apart.

Almost nobody would be spared from the plan. Thousands of Ukrainians given refuge from Putin's invading armies would face having to return, as would the thousands of people welcomed from Hong Kong. Nor would there be any exceptions for those who have lived here happily and legally for decades.

Under his plans even those granted leave to stay by a Farage-led Government could lose their right to benefits, NHS care and other support.

It is, in short, an abomination, and an abomination which if the polls are to be believed, could be heading our way in just a few short years time.

The plan did receive immediate condemnation from some quarters. London's Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan, described it as "unacceptable" saying "they have legal rights and are our friends, neighbours and colleagues, contributing hugely to our city."

"Threatening to deport people living and working here legally is unacceptable."

Red Flags: The Far-Right Warning Signs Keir Starmer Is Refusing to See

The Prime Minister must wake up and stop trying to appease the very forces trying to exploit anti-migrant hate in order to destroy his Government, argues Adam Bienkov

Adam Bienkov

A handful of Labour backbenchers publicly agreed, with Labour MP Sarah Owen condemning it as "morally abhorrent" and "dangerous".

Yet to listen to the actual Government and its representatives today, you would get the impression that the real problem with the policy is merely an administrative one.

Asked what the Prime Minister's response was to the proposal, a spokesperson for Keir Starmer would say only that he thought it was "unworkable", "unrealistic" and "unfunded".

Political spokespeople agreed, with Labour chair Anna Turley merely describing Farage's mass deportation plans as "half baked" because they "rely on discredited numbers."

"Reform have been forced to admit that their policy does not apply to people from the EU - destroying Farage's claims that it covers all foreign-born nationals," she said.

So no real condemnation of the principle of mass deporting hundreds of thousands of people, no real appeal to the people whose future is now in doubt, and no reassurance that their future will always be be secure under a Labour Government.

For a Government led by a man who was elected as leader on an explicit pledge to "defend migrant rights" this feels like an incredibly weak response, yet it is by no means a new one.

For years now Labour under Starmer has refused to explicitly condemn the lurch to the far-right taken by both Reform and the Conservatives on immigration.

When the last Conservative Government announced its plan to mass deport refugees to Rwanda, in order to end the "invasion on our southern coast" there was no explicit moral condemnation from Labour representatives, of either the rhetoric, or the principle.

Instead the party merely suggested that the plan was too expensive and unworkable. The exact same criticism they are now making of Farage's plans for mass deportations of legal residents too.

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Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey has ramped up his calls for far-right US billionaire Elon Musk and his platform X to face prosecution, in an interview with Byline Times.

Elon Musk has threatened legal action against Sir Ed in recent days after the Lib Dem leader branded him a "criminal" for his alleged incitement of violence on Britain's streets at the recent Tommy Robinson rally in London, and for allowing hate speech and child sexual abuse to run rampant on his platform.

Speaking to this outlet from the party's Autumn conference in Bournemouth on Monday, Davey said: "I'm afraid the X platform being run by Elon Musk looks like it's breaking the law, and he needs to be held to account."

"Just because he's a wealthy man who's found himself very powerful doesn't mean he's beyond the law. The Online Safety Act, which is the law I think he and X have broken by allowing videos of child sexual abuse to appear on their platform and promoting grooming and self-harm, is a law that he hates because it's going to hit him in his pocket."

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Davey added that "only Nigel Farage" is saying the Prime Minister should get rid of the Online Safety Act, which introduces tough new standards for platforms to clamp down on illegal content, and material which harms children.

"Nigel Farage looks like he's sucking up to tech billionaires like Elon Musk. That would make a wild west of social media in our country, and it means more children, young people and families are exposed to this appalling material," the former coalition minister added.

Asked if he planned to fight any legal threats from Musk, Davey said: "We're not worried about that. I think we're speaking up for the vast majority of British people who don't want this stuff and want powerful people to be held to account."

"We're not going to allow this tech billionaire from the United States to interfere in our country and damage the welfare of our children," he said.

Davey pointed to Musk's comments that "civil war is inevitable" in the UK. "It's bad enough that he calls for the overthrow of the democratically elected Government or incites violence. This is not a man who cares about Britain. He doesn't care about people. He certainly doesn't care about our children," the Lib Dem leader claimed.

However, asked why the Lib Dems remained paying members of X, Davey said: "While he owns the platform, he should face the full force of the law. [But] I'm not going to deplatform myself. I want to be there taking him on and taking on the sorts of ideas that he promotes with his algorithms, which sow division and hatred. It's right that politicians are there arguing back against him."

Davey did recently "deplatform" himself by refusing an invite to Donald Trump's state dinner during last week's UK visit.

But Davey claimed the two scenarios were not comparable: "Having had this huge honour to go to six state banquets before, I know you never get to speak to the visiting head of state. I wouldn't have had a chance to speak to Trump. But by doing what I did, I actually changed the debate in the country."

EXCLUSIVE

Whose Party? Your Party Backers in Call to 'Democratise' Left-Wing Group as Corbyn and Sultana Clash Over 'Sexist Boys Club'

As Corbyn-Sultana tensions explode into the public arena, a new group is mobilising members to demand a 'genuine say' in the new party's direction

Josiah Mortimer

He added: "I was saying...

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When 100,000 people marched through London last Saturday for the far-right "Unite the Kingdom" rally, it was the first time I felt grateful for the fact I broke my foot a few weeks ago and am currently house-bound. I had already experienced a summer of missing out, and was feeling quite sorry for myself going into September. But on Saturday, as a woman with brown skin, I was thankful that I didn't have to pretend to feel brave and step outside - because the truth is, I didn't. I felt dread, anxiety and fear.

The march, facilitated by convicted far-right criminal Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (most commonly known as Tommy Robinson), and the events that led up to it, have dominated media recently - both legacy and social. The campaign to hang England flags on every UK lamppost and roundabout, the mobs outside hotels housing asylum seekers, the hypocritical cries of 'save our women and children'. But absent from the coverage was the profound impact this was having on communities of colour. This was and continues to be completely underrepresented in the media.

Where was the outrage about the British born Sikh woman, raped by two white men in a racially aggravated attack in Birmingham? Where was the outrage about the brown women chased during the far-right march, as one man yells "smack her, smack her"? Or the nine-year old girl left traumatised in Bristol after being hit three times in a racist airgun attack, or the Muslim couple verbally abused by a white elderly man in Leicester?

Why were counter-protestors so outnumbered at the far-right march?

EXCLUSIVE

Whose Party? Your Party Backers in Call to 'Democratise' Left-Wing Group as Corbyn and Sultana Clash Over 'Sexist Boys Club'

As Corbyn-Sultana tensions explode into the public arena, a new group is mobilising members to demand a 'genuine say' in the new party's direction

Josiah Mortimer

There are many factors, but a key one is mobilisation. It is easy for the likes of Tommy Robinson and Nigel Farage to galvanise their fan base, energising people under broad, sweeping statements, pointing the finger at those with far less power than themselves, and disregarding logic and accurate information. It's not about immigration in any factual sense: the migrant crimewave these pundits decry is fiction - though the number of immigrants in Britain has doubled over 20 years, over this time, surveys show the amount of crime has actually halved, and there is no substantial evidence to show that immigrants are more likely to commit crime than British nationals.

Anti-migrant marchers often use this false narrative to frame their rage in defence of women's safety - yet as marchers in one breath shouted 'save our women!', in the other they shouted misogynistic chants of 'get your tits out for the lads!'.

Keir Starmer should recognise these falsehoods and stop attempting to fight racist violence with xenophobic rhetoric and policies. It's not about migrants, and it's not about women's safety - it's about people desperately wanting to belong to something.

John, who now works for the charity Exit Hate which helps people leave far-right groups, fell into the grips of the radicalised right by sharing a post on Facebook: 'Share this if you think British soldiers shouldn't be on the streets'. "I had an uncle at the time who was struggling really bad mentally. He used to be a soldier, and that was sort of my ticket into this online group", John told us on Media Storm.

"The group didn't immediately start sending me pictures of people doing Nazi salutes or anything like that. It started off very, very slowly, with people messaging me saying, 'John, the only reason your uncle is struggling so much right now is because we sent billions off in foreign aid'. Not everybody gets involved in the far-right immediately because they hate somebody of a different sk...

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As they gather in Bournemouth for their annual conference, it is worth reminding ourselves that life for Liberal Democrats is relentlessly tough. You're either ignored, despite moving from a total of MPs that barely broke double figures to over 70, or once in a very blue moon you might get to share power but are eviscerated as the junior partner who take the blame for everything that's unpopular and gain none of the plaudits for what the public actually like.

If anything, it is the incredible tenacity of the Liberal Democrats that shines through. "Great deeds are won,w" wrote Samuel Johnson, "not by brute strength but by perseverance".

In normal times the ebb and flow of Liberal Democrat support with a gentle uptick in its trend vote over the last few decades would be good enough just to stay in the game. But these are not normal times. The economy has not functioned effectively since the global crash. Living standards are in decline. The environmental and nature crisis start to engulf us all. Brexit, much to the dismay of Liberal Democrats in particular, looks unlikely to be reversed anytime soon. Many seem to be giving up on a political system that is liberal and democratic. 200,000 people marched through our capital demanding a different kind of liberty - the liberty to go back and to exclude, to be closed and not open. And coming from the USA is powerful and resourceful ways of pushing for an explicitly 'post-liberal' future.

In all this maelstrom what does it mean to be a liberal, where is the centre and can it hold, indeed should it hold? If we add in the conundrum of a party whose beating heart is essentially socially liberal, how does that centre left stance square with a now centre right facing electorate or former Conservative blue wall seats?

EXCLUSIVE

Whose Party? Your Party Backers in Call to 'Democratise' Left-Wing Group as Corbyn and Sultana Clash Over 'Sexist Boys Club'

As Corbyn-Sultana tensions explode into the public arena, a new group is mobilising members to demand a 'genuine say' in the new party's direction

Josiah Mortimer

None of this is easy. Ed Davey conjured an incredible result out of a first past the post system designed purposely to marginalise his party. And 70 is way better than 10. But the standing, the voice and the influence of the Liberal Democrats has not changed dramatically. Some of this isn't their fault but that of the system. Labour have a huge majority, although cracks are starting to appear like the recent revolt on disability benefit payments. And the media of course play to the Farage gallery and it's infuriating.

But given the existential threats facing a country that is still just a liberal democracy, where are the big ideas, the big thinking and the policy positions that speak to a bigger story coming from in the Liberal Democrats? The tensions between what their MPs and activists believe, and what their voters want are apparent. The party is against putting VAT on school fees and taxing farmers more. They rail against water companies failing their customers but refuse to back the logical step of putting this essential utility into the hands of the public. This is real raw politics. And it's tough.

The game it seems is largely not to offend anyone in the hope that seats won won't be lost and in the event voters hand the country a balanced parliament then the game is back on. The polls suggest this is more than a possibility, but with more than three years to go frankly anything could happen and probably will. In the meantime, what can the party do to stake out more robust terrain, while maintaining that difficult balancing act between principle and electoral pragmatism?

First the Liberal Democrats must set out the moral and intellectual case for liberalism as it comes under sustained attack from the post liberals. What...

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The new left-wing party temporarily known as Your Party has descended into public chaos just months after its launch, with co-founders Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana now publicly clashing over the party's direction and membership process.

On Thursday, Sultana launched a membership portal for the new left-wing party, only for Corbyn and fellow Independent Alliance MPs to immediately disavow it as "unauthorised" and seek legal advice.

Sultana responded by complaining about being "sidelined" by her colleagues and being "effectively frozen out of the official accounts".

"I have been subjected to what can only be described as a sexist boys' club", she said in a statement.

Against the backdrop of internal strife, concerns are mounting about whether Your Party can avoid the sort of democratic deficits that backers believe have plagued the Labour party for decades, and which the new party was meant to solve.

EXCLUSIVE

Peter Thiel's Race Science Network Extends Its Reach Into Reform UK, Conservatives and Labour

A Byline Times investigation can reveal how Donald Trump's key backer is now exporting discredited race science into mainstream politics in the UK

Nafeez Ahmed

As a result, a new group launched on Thursday within the party, called 'the Democratic Bloc.'

The group is a response to concerns that decisions are being made behind closed doors by a small circle around Corbyn, potentially replicating the top-down approach that alienated some Labour members during his leadership.

It was, in a sense, a timely launch - but was overshadowed by the open spats at a leadership level. To the Democratic Bloc, it proved their point.

The party's founding conference, scheduled for before New Year, was meant to establish democratic structures and policy priorities - but the current turmoil raises questions about whether it can deliver the grassroots-driven alternative to Labour that supporters hoped for.

It's in this context that Mish Rahman, co-founder of the Democratic Bloc, has emerged as a voice pushing for 'genuine member control' over Your Party's future.

A former left-wing member of Labour's National Executive Committee, Rahman has organised over 500 activists so far to demand that the founding conference be truly democratic rather than a rubber-stamping exercise for predetermined decisions. His group represents a faction determined to prevent Your Party from repeating what they see as Labour's failures - centralised control, member exclusion, and the sidelining of grassroots voices in favour of leadership diktat.

Mish Rahman spoke to Byline Times about the project.

Josiah Mortimer: Following the chaos this week - with Sultana launching a membership portal and then it being cancelled by Corbyn's side - what are your thoughts?

Mish Rahman: We launched the Democratic Bloc today explicitly stating, nobody is coming to save us, the grassroots must get ready to deliver democracy for the new left party. Thursday showed that this is true, you cannot rely on an individual or individuals, collectively we must take control of the direction of the party, its bigger than any one individual, our future depends on it

Josiah Mortimer: You were a left winger on Labour's NEC. Are you feeling more at home now in Your Party?

Mish Rahman: The Labour Party made big mistakes, even under Corbyn. Too often it failed to respond to the real needs of the day because it acted more like an election machine than a democratic party. The old system of people at the top telling everyone else what to do has bred distrust and opened the door to far-right populism. People don't want lectures from politicians in suits who don't share their life experience when bills are rising, wages are low, and the cost of living keeps climbing.

This new party must not repeat those mistakes. It's a rare chance for the left to build...

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Trump-supporting Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel is set to extend his financial reach into the UK, after Keir Starmer and the US President announced a new transatlantic tech partnership incorporating his data mining company Palantir. As part of the deal Thiel's company will invest a further £1.5 billion into Britain, on top of its already extensive interests in the NHS.

However, a Byline Times investigation can reveal that Thiel's far deeper impact on the country could be an ideological one, focused on a network seeking to rehabilitate discredited race science and authoritarian ideas into the Conservatives, Reform UK and Labour.

At the centre of the network is his friend, admirer, and leading figure in the "neo-reactionary" movement, Curtis Yarvin, the blogger known as Mencius Moldbug.

Thiel's venture firm has already invested in Yarvin's company Tlon, and his main political protégé JD Vance — now US vice president — is also a big admirer. What began on fringe blogs is increasingly embedded in Washington, and is now being exported to Britain.

The 'Dark Enlightenment'

Yarvin is not well yet known among the UK public but his "Dark Enlightenment" writings have been deeply influential on the US right and increasingly in the UK right too. These ideas include calls for the end of democracy, with Yarvin arguing that Western democracies should be replaced by what he has referred to as a "monarchy" run by an unelected dictator, or "CEO".

They have also included the endorsement of discredited ideas about the "natural inferiority" of black people.

In a 2009 essay Yarvin argued that "the obvious statistical differences in the average talents of human races" justified eliminating the system of representative government.

"Obviously, once you stop believing in democracy, it is easy to stop seeing the failure of this political design in societies with a high percentage of non-Eurasian genetic ancestry as a moral reflection on persons of non-Eurasian ancestry, and start seeing it as a mere engineering failure…" he wrote.

Yarvin is also known for his repeated use of the n-word. In an interview with Byline Times, his associate and founder of the 'Blue Labour' movement, Maurice Glasman, confirmed that Yarvin had shown the racial slur to him during a London portrait sitting. Glasman said that he had reacted with disgust but admitted he remained interested in Yarvin's views on artificial intelligence.

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In February 2025, Yarvin appeared at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) summit in London, co-founded by Jordan Peterson and funded by GB News investor Paul Marshall. Its advisory board includes Peterson, commentator Douglas Murray, Lord Glasman, and Reform UK policy chief James Orr. Both Peterson and Murray have defended The Bell Curve, which claimed racial hierarchies in intelligence. The event was addressed by other leading figures on the right of British politics, including Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch.

Yarvin is also scheduled to appear at this year's How the Light Gets In festival in London, where he will take part in three panels, including one in which Tony Blair's former press secretary Alastair Campbell says he will interview him for a "lively discussion" as the "philosopher behind JD Vance".

The upcoming Byline Times investigation will show how Thiel's ideological network cuts across Britain's political spectrum:

Conservatives: Yarvin admirer Dominic Cummings' former adviser Andrew Sabisky, who argued Black people are predisposed to lower IQ, now influences Civic Future's Conservative leadership pipeline.

Labour: Gla...