News Round-Up

• “Free speech hotline launched in response to hate crime law” – The Free Speech Union has set up a Hate Speech Hotline for anyone who thinks they might have fallen foul of Scotland’s Hate Crime Act to call, reports the Times. The FSU has put an arrangement in place with Levy & McRea, a top firm of Scottish criminal lawyers, so it can defend its members.
• “Don’t feel too encouraged by police leniency with J.K. Rowling” – It’s reassuring that J.K. Rowling isn’t going to Cornton Vale, but there is still plenty of scope for the Hate Crime Act to do serious damage to liberty, warns Stephen Daisley in the Spectator.
• “Where is the outcry from British Churches on ‘nightmarish’ nature of Scotland’s new ‘thought crime’ law?” – Bishops and priests are remaining largely silent over Scotland’s new hate crime laws, observes1 Gavin Ashenden in the Catholic Herald.
• “Scotland: no country for young men” – Police Scotland will target young men with “with ideas about white-male entitlement” under the new Hate Crime Act, writes Dr. Roger Watson in the European Conservative.
• “Police in Scotland ‘making it up as they go’ over new hate crime law” – Police in Scotland have been accused of favouring the famous after they refused to go after J.K. Rowling or Humza Yousaf, but did take action on Murdo Fraser’s post calling “non-binary as valid as identifying as a cat”, reports the Mail.
• “Tory MSP writes to Police Scotland chief over ‘non-crime hate incident’ row” – A Tory MSP has written to Scotland’s top police officer to demand answers after the force recorded a social media post he had written as a “non-crime hate incident”, says the Scotsman.
• “‘Lavender’: the AI machine directing Israel’s bombing spree in Gaza” – The Israeli army is using an AI targeting system with little human oversight, reveals +972 Magazine.
• “Israel denies using AI to identify Gaza air strike targets” – The Israel Defense Force says it “outright rejects” claims it is using an AI system to identify terrorists, according to which (allegedly) it tolerates the killing of more than 100 civilians in order to successfully target each Hamas commander, reports the Telegraph. 
• “Destroying Hamas is in Britain’s interest. We should be backing Israel to achieve it” – Demands from the foreign policy elite for a ceasefire in Gaza before the job is done give succour to our enemies, warns David Frost in the Telegraph.
• “The truth about Israel’s ‘friendly fire’” – The Foreign Secretary is haranguing Israel over its tragic unintentional killing of seven aid workers in Gaza, and yet he oversaw a war in which such ‘friendly fire’ horrors were commonplace, remarks Brendan O’Neill in the Spectator.
• “Former Supreme Court judges say Government’s arming of Israel breaches international law” – Three former Supreme Court judges say the Government is breaching international law by continuing to arm Israel, according to the Telegraph.
• “Labour’s Gaza problem” – The more Starmer sticks to a nuanced line on Gaza, the more his opponents within the party will begin to bark, says Rod Liddle in the Spectator.
• “Tories investigating Alan Duncan’s comments on party’s pro-Israel ‘extremists’” – The Conservative Party is investigating former Minister Alan Duncan after he called for Tom Tugenhadt and Eric Pickles to be kicked out of the party for their support of Israel, according to the Guardian.
• “People continued eating 50% more fast food after lockdown surge, IFS says” – The Institute for Fiscal Studies warns that a lockdown takeaway surge has left people consuming 50% more fast food than before the pandemic, according to the Telegraph.
• “CDC releases hidden COVID-19 vaccine injury reports” – The U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has released previously hidden reports of facial paralysis and other adverse events following COVID-19 vaccination, reports the Epoch Times.
• “The NHS has lost its way, and patients are paying the price” – Accepting that the NHS has lost its way requires those at the top to account for their failings, say Prof. Carl Heneghan and Dr. Tom Jefferson.
• “NHS can’t cope with ’avalanche’ of autism and ADHD diagnoses” – A new report warns that unprecedented levels of autism and ADHD referrals risk overwhelming the health service, according to the Mail.
• “Ukrainians returning home to get dental treatment” – A Ukrainian mother living in Wiltshire says she returned to her war-torn country because she could not access NHS dental care, reports the BBC.
• “Judges to look at softer sentences for ‘deprived’ criminals” – Judges have been told to consider more lenient sentences for offenders from “deprived” or “difficult” backgrounds, says the Telegraph. As if we don’t have enough anarcho-tyranny!
• “Britain leaving ECHR would be compatible with deportation deal, says Rwanda” – The Home Office believes that Rwanda flights will take off this spring even if the European Court of Human Rights intervenes, reports the Telegraph.
• “‘Tow them back to Calais’: cabbie clashes with PM over small boats” – A taxi driver clashed with Rishi Sunak over the ongoing small boats crisis, suggesting that the Navy should tow illegal migrants back to Calais, says the Mail.
• “Why do teachers think they can ban Ofsted?” – There is one thing that seems to be missing from the campaign by the National Education Union to abolish Ofsted – the interests of children, writes Ross Clark in the Spectator.
• “Child gangsters: the new Swedish model” – One of the most dismal elements of the epidemic of violence in Sweden is how often it involves children, says Fredrik Karrholm in the Spectator.
• “Trump makes surprise appearance at Nigel Farage’s 60th birthday bash” – Donald Trump made a surprise appearance at Nigel Farage’s 60th birthday bash, sending a video message to hail the “prophetic leader”, reports the Mail.
• “Donald Trump has rescued the Nato alliance” – Trump’s hectoring finally seems to have encouraged the weak Europeans to stand on their own two feet, says Con Coughlin in the Telegraph.
• “The coming civil war on Europe’s Right” – It would be naïve to assume that a Right-wing majority in the European Parliament would change much, given that the real power in the EU is exercised elsewhere, writes Thomas Fazi in UnHerd.
• “The Greens are not a genteel alternative to Labour – they are on the far-Left” – The Greens are the Reform U.K. of the Left – they could make life difficult for Labour, says Tom Harris in the Telegraph.
• “Wind power is all hot air” – What hope is there for a reliable national grid based upon the whims of the weather? asks Tom Ed on Substack.
• “Noted Tesla bear says Musk’s EV maker could ‘go bust’ and stock is worth $14” – Tesla is facing a price war, intense competition from Chinese players and weakening demand for its electric cars, reports CNBC.
• “‘I scrapped my car as TfL said it wasn’t Ulez compliant – but it was’” – A driver scrapped her car for just £250 after Sadiq Khan’s TfL claimed it didn’t meet emissions standards – only to discover two weeks later that it did, says the Mail.
• “Fed blocks tough global climate rules for Wall Street banks” – U.S. regulators, led by the Federal Reserve, have thwarted a push to make climate risk a focus of global financial rules, according to Bloomberg.
• “‘Hiring Gen Z is a nightmare – they don’t turn up to their first day of work’” – Young people can barely get through an interview, let alone become valuable employees, says Charlotte Gill in the Telegraph.
• “Men aren’t drifting Right – but women are moving Left” – Young women in Western countries have become more socially progressive, says Eric Kaufmann in UnHerd.
• “Wokeness hurts women. Why do so many support it?” – In the National Post, Amy Hamm confronts the troubling truths about the male-female divide on radical progressive hogwash.
• “Schools defy ministers to let children change gender behind their parents’ backs” – The biggest survey of its kind shows that primary school teachers are allowing children to change gender without informing their parents, despite Government guidance to the contrary, reports the Telegraph.
• “The ‘luxury beliefs’ that harm vulnerable children” – Somehow, expressing concern for disadvantaged kids became coded as conservative or Right-wing, writes Mary Wakefield in the Spectator.
• “Maya Forstater accuses trans judge of misrepresenting law” – A women’s rights campaigner has accused a transgender British judge of misrepresenting a court ruling that found in favour of those promoting gender-critical beliefs — including the idea that people cannot change sex, according to the Times.
• “Team GB’s Olympic Union flag sells out despite fury over design” – The ‘Union Jack’ branded Team GB Olympic flags, which sparked outrage for being produced in shades of pink and purple with squiggles and dots, have sold out within 48 hours, reports the Telegraph.
• “Cambridge is decolonising the dodo” – Advancing scholarship is very different from furthering an agenda, says Andrew Tettenborn in CapX.
• “The game’s up for ‘anti-racist’ racism” – A new generation have seen through the race-hustle of some of their elders, writes Douglas Murray in the Spectator.
• “‘When someone… burns their infant in its crib, I don’t give a damn why they did it – it’s wrong!’” – On Dr. Phil Primetime, Dr. Phil comes out all guns blazing in defence of Israel’s military operation in Gaza.

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