News Round-Up

• “Police must stop ‘intimidatory’ protests against MPs as threat level rises: Rishi Sunak” – The PM says that the police must make full use of their powers to protect politicians as pro-Palestinian demonstrations increase risk to members, reports the Telegraph.
• “Islamist denialism has reached crisis levels” – The ‘hate speech’ complaint against Lee Anderson reveals the censorious power of the charge of Islamophobia, says Fraser Myers in Spiked.
• “The Rochdale by-election has exposed the worst of British politics” – If the by-election in Rochdale is about anything other than Gaza, it is about the Labour Party, writes Jake Wallis Simons in the Spectator.
• “The Hallett Inquiry is back, but you wouldn’t know it” – Prof. Carl Heneghan and Dr. Tom Jefferson are back monitoring the Welsh leg of the Covid Inquiry.
• “Covid pandemic may have been started by scientists, professor tells UN” – Covid could have been created by a “research-related incident”, the UN has heard at the launch of a report calling for better regulation of experiments that could spark pandemics, according to the Telegraph.
• “The ‘boys will be boys’ of science” – Are citations and grants and fame really worth the risk of causing a pandemic and killing millions of people? asks Alex Washburne for the Brownstone Institute.
• “Chinese fire drill” – On Substack, Thomas Buckley compares the chaotic responses to COVID-19 to a mismanaged fire evacuation.
• “Human rights make a brief appearance in ‘bombshell’ COVID-19 vaccine ruling” – For the first time in Australia, a court has ruled mandatory COVID-19 vaccination unlawful, reports the Epoch Times.
• “Sokal cubed: is this the biggest academic publishing scandal of all time?” – On Substack, Dr. Raphael Lataster exposes a potentially massive scandal in academic publishing.
• “Doctorsaurus Rex and the rise of the ‘noctor’” – The Covid Physician takes aim at the current state of the NHS, focusing on the increasing influence of non-doctor healthcare practitioners and the decline of traditional medical practices.
• “Matt Hancock mocked by Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg’s son for lockdown affair” – Matt Hancock was mocked by Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg’s son over his lockdown affair after he’d taken a shot at his father as he addressed pupils on a visit to Eton, according to the Telegraph.
• “More than 616,000 foreign workers and dependents got U.K. visas in 2023” – Home Office data shows that the number of U.K. visas handed to foreign workers and their family members soared to more than 600,000 last year, reports the Mail.
• “The Tories have no excuse to whine about the Blob” – Blaming the levers of government for a lack of change is a poor argument that makes the Conservative Party weak and pointless, says John Oxley in the Spectator.
• “Britain is doomed to forever be America’s sick relation” – Without radical reform, the U.K. economy is destined to live in America’s shadow, argues Douglas McWilliams in the Telegraph.
• “‘I don’t like the term ‘impartial’” – News presenter Clive Myrie has said he dislikes the term ‘impartial’ and does not believe the BBC must provide balance on every topic, according to the Telegraph.
• “Unis ‘lying to themselves’ if they think free speech not an issue” – The Vice Chancellor of SOAS in London says higher education bosses have been guilty of a “failure to intervene” when people have been censored, reports the Mail.
• “Alastair Campbell (national treasure) on private schools” – On Substack, Mr. Chips takes aim at Alastair Campbell’s advocacy for VAT on private education to promote equality.
• “The sinister tactics of Hope Not Hate” – Hope Not Hate wishes to change the political weather in our country and has few qualms about how it does it, says Douglas Murray in the Spectator.
• “Putin makes direct threat to nuke the West” – Vladimir Putin has made a direct threat to nuke the West as he accused NATO and the U.S. of “preparing to strike” Russia in his annual address to the nation, reports the Mail.
• “The most terrifying thing about Putin is not that he’s delusional, but that he might be right” – Putin’s speech to the Federal Assembly reinforces his vision for a more assertive Russia, capitalising on what he sees as Western indecision, writes Jade McGlynn in the Telegraph.
• “How Hong Kong turned its back on capitalism – and paid a terrible price” – Under Xi’s tightening grip, Hong Kong’s days as a global deal-making hub are numbered, says Melissa Lawford in the Telegraph.
• “How collapsing energy use reveals Britain’s economic disaster” – In 2022, excluding the 2020 Covid lockdown, the U.K. used less energy than in any year since at least 1970, report Melissa Lawford and Jonathan Leake in the Telegraph.
• “Net Zero targets have hamstrung British prosperity” – To claim that Net Zero has sparked an industrial boom in Britain, you have to be pretty inventive with the figures, says the Spectator in a leading article.
• “The farce of Drax’s wood pellets” – When is the Government going to stop pretending that chopping down trees in North American forests and shipping them to burn in U.K. power stations is a zero-carbon form of energy? asks Ross Clark in the Spectator.
• “Six months on, Ulez is doing more harm than good” – With unfair fines, false advertising and a huge legal scandal, the Ulez scheme is a shambles… yet this is just the beginning, warns Ed Wiseman in the Telegraph.
• “Europe’s consensus on climate is crumbling” – With farmers in revolt and the far-Right surging, is Ursula von der Leyen about to wreck her own green agenda? wonders Wolfgang Münchau in the New Statesman.
• “Riding the backlash against climate policies ” – Pledges made at COP28 are being broken as politicians in the U.S. and across Europe backpedal on climate goals, writes Amanda Kolson Hurley for Bloomberg.
• “First drop in sales: honeymoon is over for Europe’s heat pump industry” – Europe’s heat pump industry has been forced to cut, or temporarily freeze, 3,000 jobs following investments into production capacity that overshot demand growth, according to Euractiv.
• “Toyota was right about hybrid cars all along” – Toyota’s slow-and-steady approach to EVs and hybrids is going well, despite years of criticism, says Nora Naughton in Business Insider.
• “EU lawmakers ‘outraged’ after states block landmark ESG law ” – An EU law designed to clean up corporate supply chains has been derailed by the bloc’s biggest member states, reports Bloomberg.
• “Trans women criminals must be recorded as men, says No.10” – Downing Street has told police to list offenders, such as ‘cat killer’ murderer Scarlet Blake, as male unless they have legally changed gender, reports the Telegraph.
• “BBC upholds complaint against Today presenter Justin Webb for saying trans women are males” – The BBC has upheld a complaint against the Today presenter Justin Webb after he said “trans women, in other words males”, says Press Gazette.
• “NHS issues urgent warning for discredited transgender clinic” – GPs have been warned not to work with the transgender clinic Gender GP after the NHS issued an urgent safety alert, reports the Telegraph.
• “Bud Light trans boycott hammers world’s biggest brewer” – A growing boycott of Bud Light over its partnership with a transgender influencer has hurt sales at parent group AB InBev, says the Telegraph.
• “Woke segregation arrives at the West End” – There is nothing ‘progressive’ about a black-only theatre performance, argues Thomas Osborne in Spiked.
• “Theatre’s obsession with ‘inclusivity’ has hit an embarrassing new low” – Organisers of a ‘Black Out’ night seem to think enjoyment of the arts must be determined by ‘lived experience’. They couldn’t be more wrong, says Ella Whelan in the Telegraph.
• “Having a pop at Mary” – In the New Conservative, Jack Watson gives his take on the recent reclassification of Mary Poppins from U to PG because it contains ‘discriminatory language’.
• “How to write a modern screenplay” – People do not want genuine drama these days, just validation of their asinine prejudices, says Rod Liddle in the Spectator.
• “New Zealand scraps its world-first cigarette ban” – New Zealand will repeal a world-first law banning tobacco sales for future generations, reports the Mail.
• “Gemini AI exposes the progressive playbook” – Google’s new AI app Gemini has caught the sanctimonious social engineers with their pants down, says Lionel Shriver in the Spectator.
• “Political corruption and taxpayer money behind Google disinformation and censorship” – The U.S. and Germany finance Google disinformation and censorship, claims Michael Shellenberger on the Public Substack.
• “Oprah Winfrey leaves Weight Watchers board after admitting use of weight-loss drugs” – Oprah Winfrey is standing down from Weight Watchers after admitting she has been using weight-loss drugs, according to the Telegraph.
• “‘He who pays the piper, calls the tune’” – Addressing the House of Lords, former Scottish Secretary Lord Forsyth warns of the dangers of foreign states owning British newspapers.

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