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Voices

<p>‘For some, the most elderly and vulnerable, who were trapped by age and an inability to take advantage of gifting rules, this tax was cruel, pernicious, and terrifying’</p>
Tom Bradshaw

Farmers like me took on Labour’s cruel inheritance tax raid – and won

The government has finally seen sense and thrown Britain’s tractor-tooting farmers a reprieve on inheritance tax laws – saving thousands from the abyss, says Tom Bradshaw

<p>’My family story was suffused with secrecy. Unknown to us children, each of my grandparents conducted multiple same-sex relationships throughout their otherwise happy marriage’</p>
Juliet Nicolson

I like sharing a good secret at Christmas...

<p>‘Cash-strapped councils across London, hollowed out by austerity and desperate for revenue, now behave less like custodians of place and more like players in a high-stakes game of Monopoly’</p>
Jack Burke

Rowans bowling alley is loved. Of course the council wants it gone

<p>Healthcare professionals listening to patients would transform the NHS</p>
James Moore

My biggest health shock? A hospital visit that shows NHS can be saved

<p>For quite trivial sums, millions of lives can be shielded from individual misery, and whole societies in poorer countries saved from collapse</p>
The Independent View

We are winning the fight against Aids. Now is not the time to retreat

<p>Kat Brown and her dog Sybil, adopted from Serbia’s Forgotten Paws at Christmas in 2020</p>
Kat Brown

I know a dog is for life, but both my pets arrived at Christmas

<p>‘Algorithms may feed us hundreds of happy faces a day, but who are we actually engaging with, in a real and breathing sense?’</p>
Sophie Wilkinson

So what if we didn’t see each other before Christmas?

<p>White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles confirmed that President Donald Trump is in the Epstein files, telling Vanity Fair that the late sex offender and Trump were ‘sort of young, single playboys together’</p>
Jon Sopel

What Susie Wiles was really trying to tell us about Trump

<p>Gavin Barwell, who has said it is ‘insane’ for Tory MPs to indicate that they would do a deal with Reform in a hung parliament</p>
John Rentoul

The anti-Farage Tories who want Labour to win

<p>Vladmir Putin during his address to Russia on Friday</p>
The Independent View

Ukraine is showing fighting spirit, and its allies must respond

President Donald Trump announced the first-ever 'Patriot Games,' which many social media users likened to the fictional Hunger Games
Alan Rusbridger

The BBC has no choice but to teach Trump a lesson about free speech

<p>Family photographs, including unseen pictures of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, from Frieda Hughes’s personal album</p>
Frieda Hughes

A poem in memory of my mother, Sylvia Plath

<p>Katie White, right, in Bristol with a student volunteer for her non-profit rape-prevention company Enough</p>
Katie White

What the national emergency of rape means for students

<p>This woman, a 42-year-old mother of four, was raped in the Bulengo displacement camp, where she had fled war in eastern Congo</p>
Mwenyechake Zindula Wilhermine

In the Congo, sexual violence is not incidental but a weapon of war

<p>If Europe acted immediately to protect Ukrainian infrastructure, for example, and fill the space with drones, then the war might more easily be won</p>
Sean O’Grady

The EU’s €90bn won’t win the war – but Ukraine won’t lose (for now)

<p>The Academy Awards will be streamed by YouTube from 2029</p>
James Moore

By showing the Oscars, can YouTube bring back Hollywood’s golden age?

With fewer people tuning in to the Academy Awards, letting an web-based platform stream it live and pump out clips to social media might boost its appeal, says James Moore

<p>The government is to tackle misogynistic, toxic influencers like Andrew Tate head-on with compulsory lessons on healthy relationships for all secondary school pupils</p>
Victoria Richards

Kids are taught about knife crime – so why not Andrew Tate, too?

<p>The Labour government has confirmed the UK will rejoin EU’s Erasmus student exchange scheme (Stefan Rousseau/PA)</p>
Joël Reland

After Erasmus, the other steps the UK could take for closer EU ties

Explore news for you

More Voices

<p>Kate and Gerry McCann take part in the ‘Miles For Missing People’ 10km run in Hyde Park in 2010</p>
The Independent View

The hope and heartbreak of Kate McCann

The Independent View

The hope and heartbreak of Kate McCann

Editorial
<p>Kate and Gerry McCann take part in the ‘Miles For Missing People’ 10km run in Hyde Park in 2010</p>
<p>‘Some experiences never leave; you simply learn to carry them’</p>
Voices

Kate McCann: ‘Life is divided into a before and an after’

<p>High prices were the most common complaint</p>
Home News

‘A broken industry’: Readers on why pubs are struggling to survive

<p>‘Each statistic is a real life set back, harmed, potential unfulfilled’</p>
Voices

Can Labour really end homelessness?

<p>Crowds will be out on Friday to watch the Boxing Day meets</p>
Home News

‘Enough is enough’: Readers welcome move to ban trail hunting

<p>Crowds will be out on Friday to watch the Boxing Day meets</p>
Home News

‘Enough is enough’: Readers welcome move to ban trail hunting

<p>Vladmir Putin during his address to Russia on Friday</p>
The Independent View

Ukraine is showing fighting spirit, and its allies must respond

<p>Strike action is giving health secretary Wes Streeting a difficult end to his year</p>
The Independent View

There is still work to do to fix the NHS

Most commented

DOJ releases nearly 30,000 more pages of Jeffrey Epstein documents: Latest updates

121 comments

Trump doubles down on claim that US must take over Greenland for national security

191 comments

Ukraine war latest: Zelensky says draft documents prepared after US talks

252 comments

Major climbdown on inheritance tax raid on farmers as Starmer caves in to pressure

122 comments
Join the Conversation

More Voices

<p>The future of Syria lies in education, not roads and buildings, says a Syrian teacher</p>
Voices

Rebuilding Syria after Assad must start with schools, not concrete

<p>‘Amber, with her brilliant musical theatre career, has simply not passed the smell test for what makes a good Strictly star’</p>
Voices

Please, no more crying on Strictly

<p>Removing yourself from the most high-pressure day of the year might be the kindest thing you could do </p>
Lifestyle

Skipping family gatherings can be the best Christmas gift, say readers

<p>Keir Starmer spoke with Donald Trump over the phone on Thursday night, Downing Street said</p>
Voices

Starmer is trying hard to big up the economy – but 2025 has been a dud

<p>Analysts in the West have argued that Vladimir Putin appears to be actively preparing for conflict with Europe</p>
The Independent View

Ukraine cannot continue to survive on Europe’s starvation rations

<p>Downing Street has scrapped its daily afternoon lobby briefing in a move that journalists warn could damage scrutiny of Keir Starmer’s administration</p>
Voices

It’s beginning to look a lot like Labour is afraid of scrutiny

<p>Keir Starmer spoke with Donald Trump over the phone on Thursday night, Downing Street said</p>
Voices

Starmer is trying hard to big up the economy – but 2025 has been a dud

<p>Analysts in the West have argued that Vladimir Putin appears to be actively preparing for conflict with Europe</p>
The Independent View

Ukraine cannot continue to survive on Europe’s starvation rations

<p>Downing Street has scrapped its daily afternoon lobby briefing in a move that journalists warn could damage scrutiny of Keir Starmer’s administration</p>
Voices

It’s beginning to look a lot like Labour is afraid of scrutiny

<p>Line for non-EU citizens at Prague airport</p>
News & Advice

‘The UK got what it wanted’: Readers on long waits at EU borders

News & Advice

‘The UK got what it wanted’: Readers on long waits at EU borders

Independent
<p>Line for non-EU citizens at Prague airport</p>
<p>It is, to date, France’s most shocking mass rape case</p>
Voices

A year on from Gisèle Pelicot, do men know how women feel about them?

<p>‘There is a view that Russia could sue in the courts – which it is threatening to do – and win, leaving the EU and its banks to pick up the enormous tab’</p>
Voices

The chilling impact of Putin’s frozen assets on the Western alliance

<p>Wes Streeting with Keir Starmer on a hospital walkabout</p>
Voices

My new Mental Health Act will consign outdated treatment to history

<p>‘Jess Phillips and her colleagues appear determined to treat the challenge with the same seriousness and techniques that have been deployed, with some success, against terrorism’</p>
The Independent View

Misogynistic abuse is a ‘national emergency’ – and it starts online

<p>‘Jess Phillips and her colleagues appear determined to treat the challenge with the same seriousness and techniques that have been deployed, with some success, against terrorism’</p>
The Independent View

Misogynistic abuse is a ‘national emergency’ – and it starts online

<p>Soon we will be treated to another choreographed display of life in the inner sanctums of the Trump cult – the Amazon documentary on Melania, mother and first lady</p>
Voices

Just when you thought Trump couldn’t go any lower…

<p>I was on 24/7 oxygen in the hospital, and even weeks later, I couldn’t get out of bed. I was being washed in bed because I had no energy. I thought: this could really kill me</p>
Voices

Flu left me on permanent oxygen and needing a double lung transplant

<p>Trump receives the FIFA Peace Prize from Gianni Infantino, President of FIFA</p>
Football

‘It’s not worth it’: Readers slam soaring World Cup ticket costs

<p>The government made the BMA a last-minute offer on Wednesday </p>
Health

‘Doctors are not self-indulgent’: Readers on NHS strike action

<p>‘My family are completely different to me’</p>
Voices

I’m dreading Christmas with my family – we’re so different

<p>George Osborne speaks onstage during SXSW London 2025 at Christ Church Spitalfields on 5 June, 2025 in London, England</p>
Voices

Will George Osborne leave any jobs for the rest of us?

<p>New NHS data shows that births through caesarean section have overtaken ‘natural’ vaginal births for the first time</p>
Voices

There is a hidden cost to the NHS’s big push for caesarean births

The Independent View

Public patience with the striking doctors is running out

<p>We are still a long way from ‘reversing Brexit’, insists Starmer </p>
Voices

Labour’s Erasmus breakthrough shows the way back from Brexit

<p>‘Put more bluntly, more lives will be lost and pain inflicted needlessly this week than, say, in a month’s time’</p>
Voices

I am sick to the back teeth of striking doctors

<p>‘Treat your workers well and pay them properly and productivity problems start to go away. All of a sudden we’re making up the gap with Germany. Virtue is it’s own reward’</p>
Voices

Why Taylor Swift is the best boss you never had

Voices

Why Taylor Swift is the best boss you never had

James Moore
<p>‘Treat your workers well and pay them properly and productivity problems start to go away. All of a sudden we’re making up the gap with Germany. Virtue is it’s own reward’</p>
<p>We are told the government is looking at how changes to the licence fee ‘will impact different household budgets’</p>
Voices

The BBC’s latest comedy? Giving away TV licences for free

<p>More than 10,000 UK university students participated in the Erasmus+ scheme in 2018 </p>
Brexit

‘Coming to our senses’: Readers on return of EU student exchange

<p>The BBC has handed Trump a moral and legal stick with which to beat it</p>
The Independent View

Let us all stand up for the BBC against Donald Trump

<p>For the BBC’s squirming to have real meaning, Trump believes, it must be accompanied by dollars, lots of them</p>
Voices

Donald Trump can smell money in his battle with the BBC

<p>For the BBC’s squirming to have real meaning, Trump believes, it must be accompanied by dollars, lots of them</p>
Voices

Donald Trump can smell money in his battle with the BBC

<p>An Australian rabbi addresses mourners at a Sydney vigil for victims of the Bondi Beach shootings</p>
Voices

I won’t be intimidated by the Bondi attacks into hiding my Jewishness

<p>’Between “superflu”, fake news and fatigue, the hospital is on its knees. And the background hum of industrial action makes it harder still’</p>
Voices

Why I’m striking in the middle of a winter flu crisis

<p>Trump has filed a $10bn defamation lawsuit against the BBC </p>
Home News

‘A self-inflicted situation’: Readers on Trump’s BBC lawsuit

<p>Pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai was found guilty in Hong Kong of collusion with foreign forces, as well as conspiracy to print and distribute seditious publications</p>
Voices

My father Jimmy Lai’s imprisonment isn’t justice – Britain must act

<p>‘If Trump were my client, I would advise him that this is not the hill to die on – it is a legal cliff edge’</p>
Voices

How the BBC can fight the $10bn Trump lawsuit… and win

<p>A woman places an Israeli flag over flowers at Sydney’s Bondi Beach following the mass shooting that has claimed 15 lives</p>
Voices

The Bondi shootings are a new chapter in the history of Jew-hatred

<p>Blaise Metreweli, the new head of Britain’s spy agency MI6, says Vladimir Putin is exporting ‘chaos’</p>
The Independent View

How the West can still win

<p>Ahmed al-Ahmed, a 43-year-old father of two from Syria, was caught on camera wrestling a gun from a Bondi attacker</p>
Voices

After Bondi, don’t hunt for an ‘enemy within’ – honour its hero

<p>Changing tastes and falling sales has led to the Scotch whisky industry struggles</p>
Voices

Has the world really lost its thirst for Scotch whisky?

<p>‘Rather than a constructive conversation, it is more like an argument about who is doing more jobs’</p>
Lifestyle

‘I have never been happier’: Readers on life after divorce

<p>'Ukraine needs to survive the next months, and the Europeans must step up in the delivery of weaponry, technology and training'</p>
Voices

Ukraine can and will win – if its allies get serious about defence

Voices

Ukraine can and will win – if its allies get serious about defence

Robert Fox
<p>'Ukraine needs to survive the next months, and the Europeans must step up in the delivery of weaponry, technology and training'</p>
<p>Police cordon off an area after the Bondi beach shooting</p>
The Independent View

After the Bondi attack, Jews will wonder where they can feel safe

<p>Iria del Rio and Francesco Carril from ‘The New Years’</p>
Voices

Why is Gen Z so obsessed with the ‘almost relationship’?

<p>A woman holds a child after the shooting at Bondi</p>
Voices

Bondi was my safe haven – now Australia will never be the same

<p>‘I’ve never had cause to regret the investments I’ve made in stocks and shares ISAs. The index trackers I started with were inexpensive, easy to understand, and ultimately (very) rewarding’</p>
Voices

Can banks be trusted to tell us how to get rich by investing?

<p>‘I’ve never had cause to regret the investments I’ve made in stocks and shares ISAs. The index trackers I started with were inexpensive, easy to understand, and ultimately (very) rewarding’</p>
Voices

Can banks be trusted to tell us how to get rich by investing?

<p>‘To be clear, Min Aung Hlaing is staging the vote to legitimise his illegitimate rule, rebranding the State Administration Council – the junta – as the civilian State Security and Peace Commission. But a costume change by Myanmar’s top brass into civilian clothes will fool no one’</p>
Voices

What’s the point of the ICC if it won’t give Myanmar justice?

<p>Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, who is due to unveil a strategy document about how the government will meet its manifesto promise to halve violence against women and girls </p>
The Independent View

This ‘crackdown’ on violence against women must be more than words

<p>Tom Dolphin, chair of the Council of the British Medical Association, is refusing to reconsider the timing of the strike</p>
The Independent View

Dr Dolphin, call off these strikes

<p>Reform UK leader Nigel Farage now presides over the largest party membership in Britain (Jane Barlow/PA)</p>
Voices

If anyone fails to take Nigel Farage seriously, they must think again

<p>‘It's easy to take a pop at forecasters. However, they’re a sideshow when set against Reeves’ delivery or the lack of it’</p>
Voices

Why should we listen to growth forecasters when none get it right?

<p>The Belarusian people do not support this war. Only through the Kremlin’s support and massive repression was Lukashenko able to cling to power</p>
Voices

Any Ukraine peace deal without Belarus risks Russian annexation

<p>‘Kalu’s win is a triumph for her, as well as for the art world and the neurodivergent community’</p>
Voices

Nnena Kalu’s Turner Prize is also a win for our neurodivergent kids

Voices

Why the King and Prince William need to open the books on their riches

<p>Keir Starmer</p>
Voices

Starmer finally understands the damage of Brexit – and is ready to act

<p>The jailhouse conversion of Robinson was witnessed by another man of God, pastor Rikki Doolan. This is a good place to remind ourselves that anyone can call themselves a ‘pastor’, just as anyone these days can describe themselves as a ‘journalist’ or ‘therapist’</p>
Voices

Why are so many Tommy Robinson supporters turning to Christianity?

<p>Is Keir Starmer like Stanley Baldwin or Neville Chamberlain? I don’t think he is like either of them</p>
Voices

A strong economy is Starmer’s best defence against Putin

Voices

A strong economy is Starmer’s best defence against Putin

John Rentoul
<p>Is Keir Starmer like Stanley Baldwin or Neville Chamberlain? I don’t think he is like either of them</p>
<p>‘So few of us outside the high-risk categories bothered to take the necessary precautions that schools are closing, workplaces are thinning out, and family Christmases are being cancelled’</p>
Voices

A flunami has divided the UK into ‘have-shots’ and ‘have-nots’

<p>Sir Keir Starmer turns on the Christmas tree lights outside 10 Downing Street</p>
Voices

The Christmas message is only under attack by ‘rage bait’

<p>The health secretary says over 17 million people have already been vaccinated </p>
Health

‘There were clear warnings’: Readers on the NHS ‘flunami’ crisis

<p>‘The mutant strain has sparked an NHS meltdown with hospitals declaring “critical incidents” and the sick being urged to wear masks if they have to go outside to tackle the wave’</p>
Voices

The ‘flunami’ reduced me to a wreck and sent my family to hospital

<p>‘The mutant strain has sparked an NHS meltdown with hospitals declaring “critical incidents” and the sick being urged to wear masks if they have to go outside to tackle the wave’</p>
Voices

The ‘flunami’ reduced me to a wreck and sent my family to hospital

<p>A watercolour fruit bat from Frieda Hughes' first solo exhibition in 1993</p>
Voices

A gift from the past to anchor me in the present

<p>‘The US attacks on Venezuela and its interests might be seen as the first example of Trump’s second-term foreign policy in action’</p>
Voices

Today, Venezuela. Tomorrow, anyone else who dares threaten US security

<p>Streeting’s proposal is a clever one – focusing on boosting career opportunities rather than pay. This ought to be attractive to younger doctors while costing the Exchequer comparatively little, compared to the cost of another bumper pay rise</p>
Voices

What will it take to keep resident doctors in work this winter?

<p>‘Streeting would apparently prefer that people just hide what was “wrong” with them and carry on regardless’ </p>
Voices

Wes Streeting is punching down on young people with ADHD

<p>’The deeper we dug, the shakier and more suspicious these stories became, sounding hauntingly like the work of the very Pentagon Task Force we discovered had been set up in 2010 to destroy Assange and his organisation’</p>
Voices

Think you know the Julian Assange story? Think again

<p>Tony Blair did not say ‘This is my candidate’, but make no mistake, he agreed with her</p>
Voices

Everyone can see Shabana Mahmood is the heir to Blair. Even Tony

<p>‘The same right-wing Americans griping that the UK is arresting people for “just tweets”, the same Trump who called these kinds of arrests “sad…it’s not a good thing”. <em>These</em> people want to ban visitors who’ve had a spicy take or two?’</p>
Voices

With tweets like mine, I fear I’m going to be banned from America

<p>The adult content creator’s Spectator piece has all the hallmarks of one of Private Eye’s ‘Me and My Spoon’</p>
Voices

Bonnie Blue and Nigel Farage truly deserve each other

<p>Tony Blair did not say ‘This is my candidate’, but make no mistake, he agreed with her</p>
Voices

Everyone can see Shabana Mahmood is the heir to Blair. Even Tony

<p>‘The same right-wing Americans griping that the UK is arresting people for “just tweets”, the same Trump who called these kinds of arrests “sad…it’s not a good thing”. <em>These</em> people want to ban visitors who’ve had a spicy take or two?’</p>
Voices

With tweets like mine, I fear I’m going to be banned from America

<p>The adult content creator’s Spectator piece has all the hallmarks of one of Private Eye’s ‘Me and My Spoon’</p>
Voices

Bonnie Blue and Nigel Farage truly deserve each other

<p>MPs have backed proposals to create a new UK-EU customs union</p>
UK Politics

‘Madness not to’: Why readers back a return to EU customs union

<p>Reform leader Nigel Farage called the BBC’s Emma Barnett a ‘lower-grade presenter’</p>
Voices

Farage’s attack on Emma Barnett tells a worrying story

<p>The cast of US reality TV show Selling Sunset (season 5 is pictured here) are known for their explosive arguments at dinner parties</p>
Voices

I’m having friends over for dinner – and I worry they’ll judge me

<p>‘I ask, nay, beg, the Badenoch to put herself in the position of young people straight out of university, desperate to feel as though the three-year debt they’ve accrued won’t be a complete waste’</p>
Voices

Sorry Kemi, but why should I take a job I’m overqualified for?

<p>Few will have much sympathy for someone who travelled to Syria at the age of 15 to engage with the murderous Isis reign of terror</p>
The Independent View

Citizenship scandal is Mahmood’s chance to show courage and clarity

<p>‘No doubt Starmer and Lammy will be accused, again, by rebellious Labour MPs, Lib Dems and Greens, of trying to “out-Farage Farage” with their support for a Europe-wide push to align the ECHR better with public opinion’</p>
Voices

Starmer’s ECHR showdown is his last chance to see off Farage

<p>The UK’s exit from the union – as David Lammy correctly noted – badly damaged its economy. It was an act of self-harm, puncturing the economy’s wheels and wrecking the nation’s fiscal position in the process</p>
Voices

The Brexit do-over that Starmer’s too scared to talk about

<p>‘The collective strength of the European Union is an obvious obstacle to this American power-grab, and so, in a complete reversal of postwar US policy, Trump wants to dismantle it’</p>
Voices

It is time to wake up to a chilling truth – America has switched sides

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