News Round-Up

• “Lockdown fanatics can’t escape blame for this scandal” – “The country is facing a growing health crisis that has been caused by our overzealous response to the pandemic,” writes Camilla Tominey in the Telegraph
• “Face masks are ‘creeping back’, MPs claim” – The Telegraph reports on a letter written by a group of MPs to Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss which urges them to rule out any return to compulsory face coverings. Read the letter and the list of signatories here
• “Sweden reaps the benefits of its no lockdown policy” – Writing in UnHerd, Finn McRedmond reviews two new studies which suggest that Sweden is “reaping the benefits of its non-coercive approach” to the Covid pandemic
• “Fauci and Walensky Double Down on Failed Covid Response” – “Lockdowns were oppressive and deadly,” writes John Tierney in the Wall Street Journal. “But U.S. and WHO officials plan worse for the next pandemic”
• “Judge Blocks Military From Discharging Marines Who Object to Covid Vaccine Mandate on Religious Grounds” – Hundreds of marines whose requests for religious exemptions from the COVID-19 vaccine were turned down are safe from discharge, for now, the Epoch Times reports, after a ruling by a District Judge
• “Former UB40 singer forced to quit the band for not having Covid jab speaks out for first time” – Singer Matt Hoy speaks to GB News’ Mark Steyn about how he was forced out of UB40 because he declined the jab
• “‘Trashing democracy’: Australia gripped by scandal over ex-PM Scott Morrison’s secret jobs” – The Guardian provides full details of the political storm over Scott Morrison’s secretive self-appointment to five ministerial roles. He says it was a “safeguard” during the Covid pandemic
• “Scientists issue calls for masks and isolation to return this winter” – MailOnline reports that the WHO, the Tony Blair Institute and academics at Imperial college have called for renewed Covid measures
• “The Best of all Possible Collateral Damage and the Best Absurd Policies Possible” – A story in today’s Daily Sceptic prompts Thorsteinn Siglaugsson to reflect on Voltaire’s Candide
• “Covid has caused a new psychiatric disorder, and it’s not what you think; please help me name it” – This new illness “is a low- to medium-grade anxiety disorder caused by the realisation that the bureaucrats and politicians who are nominally in charge do not really know what they’re doing,” says Alex Berenson
• “The petty cruelty of the GMC” – In a piece for the Spectator, Dr. Max Pemberton explains why many doctors feel that that the General Medical Council looks like a “vindictive, sclerotic and overly bureaucratic embarrassment”
• “NHS chiefs claim soaring energy bills will trigger ‘humanitarian crisis’ this winter” – Jacob Rees-Mogg has accused the NHS Confederation of “cynical politics” after it claimed the Government is not doing enough to support vulnerable households struggling with energy bills, according to the Telegraph
• “Energy bills will rise to nearly £3,600 a year by October” – GB News takes a look at the latest energy price forecasts ahead of Ofgem’s announcement of a new cap next Friday
• “Britain’s Dumbest Energy Policy” – “Britain’s ruling Conservatives have imposed some awful energy policies in recent years, but their cap on household energy bills deserves a special mention,” says the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board
• “Graham Linehan slams BBC for ‘making him look insane’ over trans issue” – Father Ted Creator Graham Linehan says the BBC made him look like he had “gone insane” after he aired concerns about the Tavistock clinic on Newsnight, reports MailOnline, but he now feels vindicated
• “Defend Rushdie and free expression with imagination and irony” – “We must not let free speech become a battle ground for cheap slogans,” writes James Black
• “The Unseen Side of ‘Cancel Culture’” – “The threat to free expression goes well beyond high-profile cancellations,” says Ted Baker in Persuasion
• “Andrew Tate is banned from Facebook and Instagram” – Andrew Tate has been banned from the platforms for ‘violating policies’, but he has told MailOnline that the offending posts were old videos in which he was playing a “comedic character” and have been taken out of context
• “Fighting the thought police, with Harry Miller” – Harry Miller is the guest on the latest episode of the Brendan O’Neill Show, joining the host to discuss the censorious turn of the British Police
• “The RAF’s recruitment policy could damage Britain’s defences” – In the Spectator, Robert Clark takes aim at the RAF’s recruitment practices which risk “leaving combat effectiveness in the dust”
• “UC Berkeley off-campus house bans white guests from common areas” – “Many POC moved here to be able to avoid white violence and presence, so respect their decision of avoidance if you bring white guests,” state the house rules at the Person of Colour Theme House, according to the Daily Mail
• “Netflix’s Persuasion adaptation sums up the psychobabble ruining culture” – “Therapy has certainly done a lot of good for a lot of people, but it is ruining the arts,” writes Chris Harvey in the Telegraph
• “Chairman Trudeau’s digital fortress” – Spectator Australia’s Flat White sounds the alarm over the spectre of Digital ID, “a symptom of government addiction to power and control”
• “Builder who lied his way into top NHS jobs ordered to repay £96,000” – Jon Andrewes called himself a doctor to land senior jobs at the NHS, the Independent reports. But he was found out and jailed for two years and will now have to repay £96,000
• “Government racks up another £4.9 billion of borrowing in July” – Higher spending and interest payments have offset a £4.6 billion rise in tax receipts to push up the U.K.’s national debt, MailOnline reports
• “Spending is not the answer to every problem” – “In America,” writes Douglas Murray in the Times, “even the left accepts that public borrowing cannot be bottomless and state meddling must have its limits”
• “Ukraine is on the precipice of a nuclear disaster” – Richard Kemp sounds a warning in the Telegraph that Moscow could be preparing another significant offensive and that it may involve a strike on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant
• “We’ve imported the censorious authoritarian woke culture from the United States… but it’s much more damaging and corrosive in the U.K.” – Toby joins Beverley Turner on GB News to discuss the death threat sent to J.K. Rowling and why free speech is in greater danger in the U.K. than the U.S.

If you have any tips for inclusion in the round-up, email us here.