News Round-Up

• “Tory MPs race through all five stages of grief as Jeremy Hunt administers the last rites” – The Autumn Statement precipitated by wasteful pandemic spending has not just lost the Conservative Party the next general election, it’s also killed Toryism, argues the Telegraph‘s Camilla Tominey.
• “NHS staff taking more sick days and working less overtime” – The productivity of the health service drops as Steve Barclay, the Health Secretary, signals extra funding is on its way on top of already planned increases, the Telegraph reports.
• “Family-run pest control firm with just 16 staff that won £350m PPE contracts is forced to pay £70m after supplying NHS with faulty masks and gowns during pandemic” – PestFix has been forced to pay £70 million after supplying the NHS with faulty masks and gowns at the height of the pandemic, the Mail reports.
• “Royal Mint prepares for life after cash with plan to sell collectable coins abroad” – Report in the Telegraph that the Mint has switched focus to precious metals as Britain becomes an increasingly cashless society.
• “The Earliest Events of the Covid Coup” – Michael Senger sets out where he concurs and dissents from my recent analysis of Covid origins.
• “Anybody for antibodies? Daiichi Sankyo’s ‘effective’ mRNA jab” – Guy Gin reports on the homegrown Japanese jab that is headed for approval with no testing for clinical efficacy.
• “Levy on oil and gas firms’ windfall profits expands to renewable energy” – Wind and solar farms have a windfall tax imposed for the first time in a bid to save £450 off typical household bills, the Telegraph reports.
• “The austerity we don’t talk about” – Fraser Myers in Spiked points out the Net Zero agenda poses a far greater threat to our living standards than austerity 2.0.
• “COP27 – Colombia Claims an Absurd $800 Billion a Year ‘Loss and Damage’” – When it comes to the UN, says David Wojick in WUWT, absurdity is no obstacle.
• “Crypto Fraud Exposes Woke Capitalism As A Scam” – Why do people keep falling for it, asks Michael Shellenberger.
• “A course in Rod Liddle studies” – The Spectator‘s Rod Liddle returns to Durham University to find a student body oddly preoccupied with him.
• “Stop the Benin Bronzes project or face protests, Nigerian leaders tell British Museum” – The museum repatriation scheme is branded an “infiltrator” by chiefs who say the artefacts must be returned to their king, as the dispute over the objects intensifies, the Telegraph reports.
• “‘Having a vagina doesn’t make me less of a man’: Transgender man reveals he put his smear test off for a year for fear he’d be turned away because of his ‘bound chest and hairy legs’” – It’s ‘trans awareness’ week, apparently, according to the Mail, so expect more of this deluded nonsense.
• “Advancing ‘social justice’ should be one of the ‘three purposes’ of universities” – Robert Halfon, the new Higher Education Minister, appears to have mistaken himself for a Labour MP, as he says making sure disadvantaged pupils get places should be among the “main goals” of universities, reports the Telegraph.
• “How Did Ron DeSantis Outperform the GOP?” – Christopher F. Rufo writes in City Journal that the Florida Governor showed conservatives how to fight the culture war as public policy.
• “Please stop using Eventbrite. Use TicketLeap instead.” – Based on whether they like your event or not, warns Steve Kirsch, Eventbrite will cancel your event after you’ve collected all your money then keep your funds.

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