News Round-Up

• “Graham Linehan stages gig outside the Scottish Parliament after second venue cancels” – Father Ted writer, Graham Linehan appeared at a stand-up comedy gig outside the Scottish Parliament after he was cancelled twice by Edinburgh venues over his trenchant opposition to gender identity ideology, reports the Scotsman.
• “The cancellation of Graham Linehan, with Andrew Doyle” – Andrew Doyle joins Fraser Myers for the latest episode of the Spiked podcast to discuss how ‘wokeness’ is killing comedy.
• “Private Covid vaccines may soon be on sale in U.K. for the first time” – Covid jab manufactures are preparing to make booster shots available for the public to buy after health officials gave the green light to private sales for the first time, reports the Times.
• “How did pharma buy so many governments?” – The growing influence of pharmaceutical giants on the media and governments should concern us all, says Jeffrey A. Tucker in the Epoch Times.
• “Keep calm and carry on having kids: the UN’s climate chief on eco-anxiety” – The Spectator’s Ben Lazarus sits down with Jim Skea, the new head of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
• “JAMA network open paper policing misinformation is full of misinformation” – There’s a new paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association Network Open that calls out misinformation spread by physicians. Of course, the key question is: what counts as misinformation, asks Professor Vinay Prasad on Substack.
• “Ex-medical chief Jonathan Van-Tam takes job with Covid vaccine giant Moderna” – A prominent figure in the U.K.’s pandemic response has become a medical consultant at pharmaceutical giant Moderna, according to the Independent. Revolving doors?
• “Lockdown has cast a long shadow over education” – This year’s A-level cohort have paid a heavy price for our over-reaction to Covid, says Gareth Sturdy in Spiked.
• “The WHO’s proposed amendments will increase man-made pandemics ” – End so-called gain-of-function research entirely through restrictions on funding and other regulations, rather than encouraging its proliferation, says Meryl Nass in the Brownstone Institute.
• “A long term vision for YouTube’s medical misinformation policies” – Dr. Garth Graham and Matt Halprin provide an update on how YouTube is thinking about the future of medical misinformation policies, including removing cancer misinformation.
• “Britain’s baby bust laid bare: Births plummet to 20-year low” – Births in England and Wales fell to their lowest level in two decades in 2022, according to the Mail.
• “U.K. birth slump dubbed ‘good for planet’ as number of babies born hits 20-year low” – Britain’s top demographics expert has said the falling number of babies born in Britain is a “good thing”, after new data showed the number of births hit a 20-year low, reports the Telegraph. Who’s going to pay his pension?
• “Nigel Farage is wrong: Calling a Net Zero referendum would create more problems than it solved” – How would we even frame a Net Zero referendum, given the breadth of the policy, asks William Atkinson in CapX.
• “In Sadiq Khan’s world everyone else is a ‘culture warrior’” – In the ‘Khaniverse’ there are good people on one side and bigots on the other, writes Rakib Ehsan in CapX.
• “If you’re under 50, it’s time to jump ship – get out of Britain while you can” – The U.K. seems incapable of solving its problems and things are bound to get worse, writes Sam Ashworth-Hayes in the Telegraph.
• “The moral panic over looting” – Riots hold a mirror to a sick society, says David Matthews in UnHerd.
• “Cancel G.K. Chesterton and you cancel all of history” – If we only listened to those voices from history who never said anything offensive we would be left with those who never said anything worth hearing, says Ann Farmer in TCW.
• “The great sociology con” – Sociology is tendentious, spuriously scientific, politically biased and, frankly, of no use to man or beast, writes Rod Liddle in the Spectator.
• “Father Ted creator blasts Irish Government’s hate speech bill” – Graham Linehan tells Gript that the Irish Government’s ‘hate speech’ bill is a threat to “perfectly commonplace beliefs”.
• “BBC slammed for its inclusion of drag queen Cheryl Hole on MasterChef” – A transgender row has emerged over Celebrity MasterChef drag queen contestant Cheryl Hole’s use of the word ‘terf’ before her appearance on the show, reports the Mail.
• “How the woke fairy cursed Disney” – ‘Go woke, go broke’ is a cliché but will probably apply to Disney’s latest adaption of Snow White, writes Laura Dodsworth on Substack.
• “The unbearable banality of the woke Snow White” – When did Disney start catering solely to gender-studies postgraduates, asks Gareth Roberts in Spiked.
• “Prince Charming is cancelled” – Recent Hollywood adaptations of classic tales, with their diverse approach to casting and woke messages, appear forced and clichéd, writes Douglas Murray in the Spectator.
• “Trans women banned from world chess events while review takes place” – The world’s top chess federation has ruled that transgender women cannot compete in its women’s events until a review of the situation is carried out, according to the Guardian.
• “Bradley Cooper backed by Leonard Bernstein’s children over ‘Jewface’ row” – Leonard Bernstein’s children have defended Bradley Cooper after the actor was accused of ‘Jewface’ for wearing a prosthetic nose to play the late composer, reports the Telegraph.
• “Why ‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ speaks to our era” – It’s not racism or bigotry that’s driving voters to the Right – it’s decades of neglect by the liberal establishment, argues Jenny Holland in Spiked.
• “Investigating state attorneys general collusion with pro-censorship group” – America First Legal continues in its efforts to expose the alleged collusion between Big Tech and Government on internet censorship, reports Reclaim The Net.
• “‘You can’t give s**t leftards an inch’” – Argentinian Presidential candidate Javier Milei gives his opinion on the Left in a TV interview.

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