Author: Britannia Daily Staff

German employees average 15 sick days annually compared to 4.4 for British workers, with the practice costing businesses approximately €82 billion (£71 billion) each year, prompting Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democrats to unanimously back ending phone-based sick leave at their party conference. The CDU proposal would make face-to-face medical appointments mandatory before workers can be signed off, reversing pandemic-era rules that allowed Germans to secure up to five days of paid leave by calling their GP surgery. The party claims easy access to sick notes encourages workers to make “the edge-of-the-bed-decision in favour of calling in sick.” Germany operates one of…

A Scottish theatre production of Saint Joan has sparked online debate after casting a Black actress to play Joan of Arc, the 15th-century French peasant woman of European descent, with viral social media posts amplifying criticism focused on historical accuracy and ethnicity. The Citizens Theatre production, which premiered on 14 February in Glasgow, stars Mandipa Kabana, a young Scottish actress from Bathgate, in the title role. The casting choice has triggered reactions across international online spaces, according to production background materials. Viral posts on X, including from accounts like Visegrád 24 which shared promotional images and the production’s “power of…

An independent inquiry into rape and grooming gangs is currently running in early February 2026 with hearings scheduled over a ten-working-day period in central London, launched by a single MP after he claimed official promises of an inquiry had not been delivered. Rupert Lowe, who established the inquiry through crowdfunding that raised over £600,000 from around 20,000 donors, took to Facebook to answer a question asked by many: “Which parties have supported the rape gang inquiry efforts?” His response revealed stark divisions in political support for the investigation into gang-based child sexual exploitation across Britain. Conservative Party Support Lowe stated:…