Making sense of the nonsense

Five housebuilders sit on 868,922 plots worth £275bn while completions hit a decade low. Landbanking, not immigration, is why a generation can't buy a home.

98.8% of landlords made a profit in 2024, their worst year. New data shows rent controls would still leave them in the black — and save renters £1,200 a year.

One in nine MPs is a landlord - more than double the national rate. Reform UK tops the party table at 25%, and Nigel Farage owns two rental properties himself.

Developers hold permission for 1.4m unbuilt homes while Labour's £39bn sits waiting. Whoever replaces Starmer must get tough on landbanking, not cosy up to it.

Building homes is financially unviable across 48% of the country. Planning reform won't fix that. The real barriers are costs, land, infrastructure and demand.

To launch the latest edition of Babelfish June Sarpong interviewed Dale Vince on how to clean up British politics

Jenrick's unlawful donor favour. Farage's £5m crypto gift. £1.4bn wasted on Covid VIP lane contracts. Britain's politics is for sale. The fix costs just a bag of crisps each.

Dale Vince urges Labour to ban all private political donations. New polling shows two-thirds of Britons back a cap and pressure is mounting inside parliament.

A Babelfish investigation: 80% of Reform UK's £15m in donations last year came from 18 donors linked to offshore tax havens. Follow the money, find the truth.

Exclusive Survation polling for Babelfish: 71% would back a total ban on political donations in a referendum, and just 22% think the current system is fair.

Just £50m a year in private donations controls the £3trillion UK economy. Public funding would cost the price of a packet of crisps per person. So why don't we?

Britain has over 150 billionaires, and no cap on what they can give a political party. The government's new bill is a historic chance to close the door for good.

A previously unpublished email shows the civil servant running the Tory VIP lane warned it was disrupting PPE supply and risking taxpayer billions. He was ignored.

Nigel Farage took a secret £5m gift from a Thai-based crypto tycoon — on top of £22m more. British democracy isn't just for sale. It's already been bought.

What if UK parties got £50 per paid-up member from the state instead of chasing mega-donors? The Autonomy Institute's plan would cost £50m a year - and clean up politics.

A modest cut to the Sovereign Grant could free £66m a year — enough to publicly fund UK political parties and break the grip of mega-donors. Here's how.