Scottish Tory councillor defects to Reform UK
Councillor Poppy Corbett has defected from the Scottish Conservatives to Reform UK at South Lanarkshire Council, the party said on Friday.
In a post on Twitter/X, Reform UK Scotland wrote: "We're delighted to welcome Cllr Poppy Corbett from South Lanarkshire Council.
"It's clear we have all the momentum in Scottish politics. Scotland needs Reform".
We're delighted to welcome Cllr Poppy Corbett from South Lanarkshire Council. It's clear we have all the momentum in Scottish politics. Scotland needs Reform 🏴 pic.twitter.com/PnM5jmsk4k
— Reform UK Scotland (@ReformUKScot) March 28, 2025
Corbett took to Facebook to announce the decision, where she said Reform UK were fighting for "a real change for Scotland".
She wrote: "Wee announcement to make! This was not a decision that was taken lightly but sadly the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party no longer represent the people I think it should.
READ MORE: Nigel Farage backs bringing American chlorinated chicken to UK shelves
"Reform UK are ready to fight for common sense and a real change for Scotland. I have, for the past 8 years, been happy to represent anyone who contacts me, regardless of the party they support, and this will not change.
"I am here to help my constituents in any way I can and I hope you can support me and respect my decision."
Corbett is one of the councillors for the Clydesdale West ward on South Lanarkshire Council.
Her defection brings the total number of Reform UK councillors in Scotland to 10.
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USA Today
7 minutes ago
- USA Today
From bromance to bitterness, Trump-Putin relationship full of twists and turns
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The Hill
7 minutes ago
- The Hill
Stephen Miller's revenge? Duke is now in the crosshairs
Duke University, my alma mater, largely escaped the national campus turmoil following Hamas's Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel and the Israeli military's subsequent brutal war on Gaza. There were no encampments or serious complaints of antisemitism. There were no reports of faculty harassment of supporters of Israel — just some verbal student altercations and a few peaceful demonstrations on Duke's leafy quads. Race-neutral admissions have kept the campus diverse, with an especially large Asian representation. Possibly as a result, university President Vincent Price was not among other university presidents subpoenaed and grilled by opportunistic members of Congress. In April, Price joined over 200 other university leaders, signing a joint resistance letter, perhaps assuming safety in numbers. 'We speak with one voice against the unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education,' the statement said. However laudable, this contrasted with more outspoken academic leaders, such as Harvard University's Alan Garber and Wesleyan University's Michael Roth. These have opposed the Trump administration's extortionate demands, risking cutoffs of federal research funding. Bard College President Leon Botstein said that Trump's campaign against colleges follows 'a classic antisemitic routine.' Yet Price's low-profile approach — effectively choosing 'Profiles in Prudence' over 'Profiles in Courage' — has not spared Duke. Nationwide, blanket research compensation cutbacks on all universities have already cost Duke 600 jobs, mostly through buyouts. Three thousand more positions may be at risk. Then came the July 28 l e tter, jointly signed by Education Secretary Linda McMahon and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., which strongly suggested that Duke's medical center may be guilty of 'vile racism' that 'hides behind a smug superiority.' Specifically — and without offering evidence — the letter states, 'These practices allegedly include illegal and wrongful racial preferences and discriminatory activity in recruitment, student admissions, scholarships and financial aid, mentoring and enrichment programs, hiring, promotion, and more.' The Department of Education is also separately investigating allegations that Duke Law School and the Duke Law Journal 'gave advantages to prospective editors from underrepresented groups.' On July 30, the Trump administration froze $108 million in Duke's federal research funding. Last year, the university said it spent $1.5 billion on research, almost 60 percent from government. Some on campus see in all this the malign hand of perhaps the most powerful Duke alum in the country, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, class of 2007. Miller, a conservative student firebrand on campus, may be out to settle some scores. Miller had a weekly column called 'Miller Time' in the Duke Chronicle, the daily student paper. His first missive, from September 2005, was titled ' Welcome to Leftist University.' He castigated Duke for hosting writer Maya Angelou, accusing her of 'racial paranoia.' In February 2006, Miller wrote, 'A large number of Duke professors have disregarded the basic tenets of academic freedom and abandoned their professional obligations. They indoctrinate students in their personal ideologies and prejudices and in so doing betray the very people who are supposed to be their paramount concern.' Even with additional or more draconian federal research funding cuts, Duke won't go broke. Its university endowment is $11.9 billion. The separate $3.6 billion Duke Endowment also supports it. However, drawing on these funds is severely restricted. Cuts could slow projects like the development of an HIV/AIDS vaccine. Some alumni and faculty were outraged. William Lawrence, a former Duke Divinity School faculty member and former dean of Southern Methodist University's Perkins School of Theology, told me that the government's action 'revealed the deadly depravity of those public officials' who composed and sent it. The 'vile racism' allegation, he said, is baseless. 'Their presumption that 'smug superiority' will prevent Duke from solving a problem that only exists in their ideological cesspool is itself toxic to the vision that propelled Duke to greatness,' he said. More than 100 Duke graduates, initiated by a group called Concerned Alumni of Duke University, together with faculty, staff, students and friends of Duke, have sent President Price an open letter (which I have signed). The letter states, in part: 'These accusations ignore the necessity, urgency, legitimacy and integrity of recognizing all Duke community citizens' dignity and value, including historically excluded people … The Departments of Education and HHS have no cause to harass and attempt to intimidate our educational institution. Duke should reject these authoritarian intrusions. That action would be the most authentic and effective way … to recognize and affirm the rich diversity that is the Duke community — and the nation.' Despite — or because of — the stakes involved for Duke and other universities, Price's strategically low-profile response to Trump administration actions is understandable. But some of us strongly disagree. Since the early 1960s, when Duke began incrementally ending formal racial segregation, students, both Black and white, protested the pace of change. Now, with the administration's threats, there is a new challenge. 'The only answer for universities is to refuse and stand tough together. Otherwise, more and more demands will be forthcoming,' said Rees Shearer, a veteran of the 1968 Silent Vigil. That spontaneous mass encampment on the main campus, immediately following Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, demanded union recognition and pay raises for the university's predominantly Black non-academic workers. A year later, Duke's Afro-American Society seized the Allen Building, the university's administrative center, again advocating for non-academic workers plus for a Black Studies program to be established, and for more Black students and faculty. 'Ultimately,' Shearer told me, 'bullies only demand more and more until academic freedom and the bedrock moral principles of institutions become so eroded that these capitulating institutions become tools of authoritarian plutocracy.' Being true to your school means different things to different people. Duke's 1960s and 1970s cohort has not been shy regarding moral hectoring dating from our activist undergraduate days, urging the university to be its best self. In the 1990s, Duke students helped launch what became a nationwide anti-sweatshop campaign, beginning with the university's popular apparel and merchandise. Today, being true to your school means standing up forcefully against what smells like government extortion. The threat of federal funding cuts demonstrates that this is no time for institutional neutrality. 'By gambling the livelihoods of our faculty members and staff, our university has proven to Trump its intention to acquiesce, a perilous move,' undergraduate Leo Goldberg said in an interview. 'Once again, American higher education has been dealt an unprincipled sellout by those who head it.'
San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Pope Leo XIV prays for peace as US-Russia summit over Ukraine war gets underway
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (AP) — Pope Leo XIV prayed Friday for a peaceful end to the 'increasingly deafening violence' of wars around the world as he celebrated a Catholic feast day on the same day as a high-stakes U.S.-Russia summit over the war in Ukraine. History's first American pope didn't mention the meeting Friday in Alaska between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. But he has constantly called for dialogue and an end to the conflict, including in conversations with Putin and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy. On Friday Leo recalled that the Aug. 15 feast day dedicated to the Virgin Mary was declared a dogma by Pope Pius XII at the height of World War II. 'He (Pius) hoped that human lives would never again be destroyed by wars,' Leo said. 'How relevant are these words today? Unfortunately, even today, we feel powerless in the face of the spread of increasingly deafening violence, insensitive to any movement of humanity.' The pope prayed for hope for a peaceful future. 'We must not resign ourselves to the prevalence of the logic of armed conflict,' he said. Leo wasn't the only religious leader offering prayers for peace. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, prayed for a successful outcome of the U.S.-Russia summit during a visit to the Turkish island of Gokceada, home to an ethnic Greek community and his birthplace. 'Enlighten the leaders who will meet tomorrow in Alaska, that they may bring peace to the world, end these murderous wars, stop the shedding of blood, let reason prevail, and let justice and mutual respect reign throughout the world,' Bartholomew said Thursday. 'There is room here for everyone. We need not kill one another to make space.' The 85-year-old Bartholomew was visiting the island for the Aug. 15 celebration of the Virgin Mary, which is also an important date on the Orthodox Christian calendar. Leo spoke from the main piazza of Castel Gandolfo, the hilltown south of Rome that is home to a papal estate and gardens. He has spent a chunk of the summer at the estate, extending now for the second time his vacation to take advantage of the quiet and relatively cooler calm of the property overlooking Lake Alban. It was here that Leo met with Zelenskyy for the second time on July 9. Leo had spoken by telephone with Putin on June 4 and, according to the Vatican, 'urged Russia to make a gesture that would promote peace, emphasizing the importance of dialogue for establishing positive contacts between the parties and seeking solutions to the conflict.' Upon arrival in Castel Gandolfo earlier this week, Leo told reporters that he hoped the Trump-Putin summit would produce at least a cease-fire, saying the war had gone on for too long with too many dead, and no end in sight. Leo, who marks his 100th day as pope Saturday, will spend the long weekend here, breaking Sunday to have lunch with the poor people of the Albano diocese. He is scheduled to return to the Vatican on Tuesday, closing out a six-week vacation period punctuated by spells back at the Vatican, most significantly to preside over the 1-million strong Holy Year celebration for young people earlier this month. ___
