News Round-Up

• “Sturgeon’s swearing fit over ‘cancel Christmas parties’ advice is revealed in WhatsApp messages” – Newly released WhatsApp messages reveal Nicola Sturgeon was furious at public health officials for advising Scots to cancel work Christmas parties when the Omicron variant struck, according to the Telegraph.
• “Sturgeon under pressure to share Covid emails sent to private account” – Nicola Sturgeon is facing mounting pressure to publish any emails sent to her private account when she was Scotland’s First Minister during the Covid pandemic, reports the Mail.
• “Why did the SNP push for harsher lockdown rules?” – Did Scotland’s more cautious approach to lockdown help better contain the virus? The evidence suggests the opposite, writes Lucy Dunn in the Spectator.
• “Flawed studies desperately attempting to prop up the ‘official’ covid narrative are getting worse” – Despite noted statistical flaws and biased approaches, flawed Covid studies on vaccine effectiveness and safety are still getting published in top medical journals, say Profs. Norman Fenton and Martin Neil.
• “Covid research waste – Fragment One” – Prof. Carl Heneghan and Dr. Tom Jefferson think the Covid pandemic has taken research wastage to a whole new level.
• “Trudeau Government used faked intelligence to illegally frame protesting truckers as violent extremists” – A months-long Public investigation reveals the Canadian Government used disinformation to crack down on the 2022 Freedom Convoy protest.
• “Ron DeSantis was the last hope of a Covid reckoning” – Ron DeSantis’s scientific approach to the pandemic stood out from candidates of both parties, writes Dr. Jay Bhattacharya in UnHerd.
• “Third of British young people say Israel acting ‘like Nazis’” – Research for an antisemitism charity shows that a third of British young people think that Israel is acting like the Nazis, reports the Telegraph, as do 30% of the population.
• “The problem with banning Hizb ut-Tahrir” – Proscribing Islamist scumbags Hizb ut-Tahrir will do nothing to tackle their ideas, says Luke Gittos in Spiked.
• “Islamists are wreaking havoc in British schools” – Secular education is under concerted attack from hardline Muslim activists, warns Frank Furedi in Spiked.
• “Ukraine conflict shows calling up public can win wars, says U.K. Army chief” – General Sir Patrick Sanders has warned that Britain should train and equip a “citizen army” in preparation for potential mobilisation, reports the Telegraph.
• “Sunak forced to rule out Army draft as Russia war threat rises” – Downing Street has shot down Gen Sir Patrick Sanders’ suggestion of a reintroducing conscription if Britain finds itself at war with Russia.
• “Rishi Sunak’s Tory critics warn he has six weeks to turn premiership around” – With two by-elections and the Budget looming, the Prime Minister is under pressure to improve the Conservatives’ electoral fortunes, writes Ben-Riley Smith in the Telegraph.
• “Inside the Tory plot to oust Rishi Sunak” – A former No.10 advisor has joined the plot to get rid of Rishi Sunak ahead of the next General Election, according to the Times.
• “The Tory party’s total surrender is paving the way for a British Trump” – Millions of voters want radical change. Neither Sunak nor Starmer are offering anything like it, says Allister Heath in the Telegraph.
• “If U.K. allows UAE to buy the Telegraph, it will set a dangerous precedent” – The proposed takeover of the Telegraph by the UAE is unprecedented and not just a matter for this country – it will be a test case with far-reaching implications, warns Iain Duncan Smith in the Telegraph.
• “Campaign launch!” – On Substack, Mr. Chips encourages you to support the newly launched campaign ‘Education Not Taxation: Parents Against School Fee VAT’.
• “Elon Musk will fund legal challenges to Irish ‘hate speech’ legislation” – Elon Musk has warned that Ireland’s hate speech proposals would put the Irish people at “the mercy” of politicians and pledged to fund legal challenges to the legislation, according to Gript.
• “Germany becoming a ‘museum of prosperity’, business chief warns as longest ever strikes begin” – An employer president claims businesses have lost trust in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s failing coalition, reports the Telegraph.
• “Days of Government-sponsored protests and state media campaigns against the AfD have failed to break support for the party” – In Soviet Germany, the Government organises protests against the people, writes Eugyppius on Substack.
• “A remarkable coincidence” – Net Zero Watch lists four U.K. institutions that have miscalculated the cost of Net Zero, all making exactly the same error.
• “What would orthodox Christians do under Labour’s misgendering law?” – Christian teacher Joshua Sutcliffe, who is appealing his ban by the Teaching Regulation Agency for ‘misgendering’ a pupil, would not stand a chance of getting back into the profession if Labour wins power, says Julian Mann in Christian Today.
• “Employees have the right to be Gender Critical” – In the Critic, the Free Speech Union’s Freddie Attenborough reacts to new staff guidance at the U.K.’s privacy watchdog, where civil servants have been told to “think” of transgender colleagues as women.
• “Diversity strikes again” – Nowhere is the woke war on reality more apparent than in the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies of woke companies, writes Frank Haviland in the New Conservative.
• “‘The arts are now full of ideological landmines’” – In Spiked, Brendan O’Neill talks with choreographer Rosie Kay about how the art world has turned against free thinking.
• “Oh the glorious, candy-colored irony!” – In the Mail, Kennedy enjoys the fact that man-hating, feminist movie has only been nominated for one Oscar – and it’s for Ryan Gosling, who played Ken!
• “Am I having a midlife crisis?” – On his Substack, Nick Dixon says he’s found himself watching what might be classed as ‘Midlife Crisis’ films recently. Does this mean he’s having one?
• “Why Trump will win in 2024” – UnHerd’s Flo Read speaks to Pulitzer prize-winning playwright David Mamet about the death of storytelling, antisemitism in America and his enthusiasm for Donald Trump.
• “It’s over, and it’s Trump” – Yet again, the coverage of Trump is missing a serious effort to understand why a man impeached, indicted and so reviled by the establishment is the favourite candidate of the GOP base, writes Oliver Wiseman in the Free Press.
• “WTF is he saying?” – Joe Biden’s latest gaffe is being mocked on social media after the 81 year-old slurred his words during a recent speech in Virginia.

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