News Round-Up

• “Pull up a chair and watch The Chair” – Roger Watson, a Professor at Hull, says The Chair, the new series on Netflix about a fictional North American liberal arts college in the grip of cancel culture, is well worth a watch.
• “Woke unions are the next big threat to business” – The new breed of unions emerging from Silicon Valley aren’t interested in compromise or conciliation, but making firms unmanageable, according to the Telegraph.
• “Exclusive: Children and young people hit hardest by Covid lockdowns, says Stephen Fry” – Children and young people have been hit hardest by repeated Covid lockdowns, Stephen Fry said as he called for new walk-in services to help tackle the growing mental health crisis.
• “How not to talk to a science denier” – Tom Chivers in UnHerd reviews a new book sneering at “science deniers”, e.g. Covid vaccine sceptics.
• “Would you want London to be overrun with Americans like me?” – Lionel Shriver in the Spectator dares to question whether another influx of refugees – this time from Afghanistan – will be good for the country.
• “Another year of disrupted education for healthy children? We must be mad” – We’re now so accustomed to these freakish impositions that we forget to ask what it’s all for, says Robert Taylor in the Telegraph.
• “Furious travel firms say Heathrow queues are ‘Government strategy’” – Travel industry figures vented their fury today after Sunday’s scenes, which saw elderly people and exhausted families with young children waiting for hours, reports MailOnline.
• “The ‘tiger headmistress’ who’s the opposite of woke – and just what schools need” – Outspoken campaigner Katharine Birbalsingh is the perfect choice for social mobility tsar, says Celia Walden in the Telegraph. But will the Government dare appoint her?
• “Was Hurricane Ida really caused by climate change?” – Ross Clark in the Spectator casts doubt on any link between Hurricane Ida and climate change.
• “Eco-extremists want to force mothers back into drudgery” – For ordinary people, life without disposable nappies, ready meals and dishwashers means extra work at the end of the day, writes Joanna Williams in the Telegraph.
• “The New Puritans” – For those whose behaviour doesn’t adapt fast enough to new norms, judgment can be swift—and merciless, says Anne Applebaum in an essay about cancel culture for the Atlantic.
• “Stop calling me ‘white’ for having the wrong opinions” – Angel Eduardo argues in Newsweek that his opinions shouldn’t be dictated by the colour of his skin.
• “CDC: Effectiveness of vaccines against hospitalisations has waned” – The COVID-19 vaccines effectiveness at preventing hospitalisations has fallen to 75% as the Delta variant spreads, reports the Daily Mail.
• “Has Gavin Williamson failed his next big test before schools have even gone back?” – Allison Pearson in the Telegraph isn’t confident the Education Secretary can prevent education being disrupted by the teaching unions this autumn.
• “Don’t kid yourself: electric cars won’t save you money” – Road pricing would obliterate the incentive to buy an electric car, says Ross Clark in the Telegraph.
• “Judge orders hospital to treat Ohio Covid patient with ivermectin” – A judge in Ohio has ordered a hospital to treat a COVID-19 patient with ivermectin, reports the Guardian.
• “Falling Covid cases ease fears of new wave as schools return” – Coronavirus cases in England have been falling steadily for a week, prompting cautious optimism about the return to schools and offices this month, says the Times.
• “Police injured in lockdown protests sweeping Australia” – Police were injured in protests that erupted across Australia’s populous eastern states as weeks of lockdowns in the largest cities showed little sign of stemming a third wave of coronavirus infections, reports the Times.
• “If people are basically persuaded that they’re more interested in safety than freedom, then lockdowns like Covid are with us forever” – Watch Neil Oliver on GB News discuss