News Round-Up

• “The Covid inquiry is whitewashing the lockdown” – Why is no one challenging the biggest disaster of the pandemic, asks Dr. David Livermore in Spiked.
• “The BBC is falling short on its climate protest coverage” – According to a YouGov poll this week, 64% have an unfavourable view of Just Stop Oil (only 17% have a positive view and the rest aren’t sure). Unfortunately, however, none of these people appear to feature in the contacts books of BBC producers, says Ross Clark in the Spectator.
• “Covid Censorship Proved to Be Deadly” – Government and social-media companies colluded to stifle dissenters who turned out to be right, writes Bret Swanson in the Wall Street Journal.
• “Why Net Zero is on a collision course with falling house prices” – Eco targets will affect millions of properties and accelerate a house price crash, says the Telegraph.
• “Why I’ll be buying petrol car just before 2030 ban” – Matt Ridley in the Mail points out that to wean ourselves off China over the next seven years would require 100 times as much battery capacity as we have now, which is neither affordable nor feasible, nor would it achieve anything for ‘the planet’.
• “White pupils excluded from extra Saturday literacy lessons” – Parents at a Haringey primary school have been told that schools will fund the lessons for children from black families, according to the Telegraph. Breach of the Equality Act, surely.
• “Bud Light not ranked in top 10 beers after Mulvaney disaster ” – In a new YouGov survey, which polled a sample size of 1,468, the public approval of the beer slumped and it fell out of the top 10, while the popularity of other rival beers surged, the Mail reports.
• “School trans guidance may be amended to make it harder for pupils to socially transition” – The long-awaited draft document due to be published this week has been delayed while possible revisions are made, reports the Telegraph, after it was reported that schools will be told to let pupils wear the uniform of their choice as long as parents are supportive.
• “Britain’s greatest institutions have turned themselves into national laughing stocks” – From the Bank of England to the Church, august bodies are acting as if they’re run by their worst enemies, says Camilla Tominey in the Telegraph.
• “Adults have ceded absolute power to the faux-righteous, doctrinaire young” – Grown-ups have given up across British life, allowing an ideological younger generation to call all the shots, says Janet Daley in the Telegraph.
• “Now health professionals are urged to call vaginas ‘bonus holes’” – Women have condemned a charity after it suggested the vagina could instead be referred to as “the bonus hole” to avoid upsetting non-binary or trans men, according to the Mail. I actually had to double check it wasn’t April 1st for this one. File under ‘couldn’t make it up’.
• “The Captured Prosecution Service” – Read Fair Cop’s excellent letter to the CPS explaining why its new ‘trans inclusive’ guidance on domestic abuse is so wrong.
• “Dutch Government collapses following migration row” – The growing continent-wide crisis caused by mass immigration into Europe has claimed another country with the collapse of the Dutch coalition Government led by centrist politician Mark Rutte, says Nigel Jones in the Spectator.
• “Has the time come for the Dutch farmers’ party?” – Senay Boztas in the Spectator says that with 45,000 requests for asylum expected this year and barges, tents and sports halls full of people waiting for their claim to be processed, plus a housing crisis in full swing, the Netherlands’ newest political force BBB’s time has come.
• “Banks Go Woke” – Jack Watson in the New Conservative says the last time we bailed out the banks “I don’t recall them having a problem with the colour of our money”.
• “Gender-critical barrister wins top payout as judge issues stinging criticism of chambers” – A chambers which unlawfully victimised a barrister for standing up to Stonewall has been ordered to pay her £20,000 in costs for “unreasonable conduct”, reports the Telegraph.
• “Jeremy Hunt denied bank account by Monzo” – The Chancellor is among multiple politicians to have accounts denied and cards cancelled because of “disproportionate” money laundering rules, the Telegraph reports.
• “Hollywood suffers ‘diversity fatigue’ as inclusivity chiefs step down” – Four recently departing executives are black women amid what critics call a “mass exodus”, says the Telegraph.
• “Threads: Mark Zuckerberg’s safe space” – Meta’s ‘kinder’, ‘friendlier’ Twitter rival might be the most censorious platform yet, writes Fraser Myers in Spiked.
• “Christian job offer rescinded after free speech case victory” – Felix Ngole was allowed to return to Sheffield University after winning his free speech case in 2019, but his would-be-employer has now rescinded a job offer because his views do not align with their values, according to the Mail.
• “The EU’s Mass Censorship Regime Is Almost Fully Operational. Will It Go Global?” – Nick Corbishley in ZeroHedge looks ahead to the coming into full operation next month of the EU Digital Services Act, which will require large online platforms to remove ‘hate speech’ and ‘disinformation’.
• “There is nothing progressive about identity politics” – When did supporting colour-blindness, gay rights and women’s liberation become a Right-wing position, asks Tom Slater in Spiked.
• “Imagine deciding to disrupt someone’s wedding. You’d have to think that it would help your cause, you were entitled to disrupt, and you were good and they were evil” – Grandiosity, entitlement and ‘black and white’ thinking define pathological narcissism, tweets Michael Shellenberger as he comments on George Osborne being targeted by Just Stop Oil.

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