News Round-Up

• “Rishi Sunak warns Keir Starmer will ‘raise taxes and raid your pension’ and has ‘no plan’ on immigration as leaders squabble in high-stakes ITV election debate – but as poll shows PM edging it 51%-49% was Nigel Farage the real winner?” – The Mail reports on last night’s debate.
• “I underestimated Rishi Sunak. He’s an excellent debater” – The Telegraph‘s Jake Wallis Simons argues Sunak landed the strongest blows and was nimblest on his feet in the ITV debate.
• “Farage’s return is Rishi Sunak’s worst nightmare” – From the moment the Conservatives called this summer election they seemed doomed, but the doom has only deepened with the arrival of Farage, says James Johnson in the Spectator.
• “Cometh the hour, cometh the man?” – TCW‘s Kathy Gyngell hails the entry of Farage into the political fray.
• “Farage Goes All-in” – Although it’s too early to say with any degree of certainty, Monday June 3rd 2024 may well go down as a pivotal moment in Britain’s rich political history, suggests Frank Haviland in the New Conservative.
• “Farage says Tories ‘betrayed’ U.K. and calls for ‘zero’ net migration” – Farage kicks off with a hard line on immigration, according to the Mail.
• “Nigel Farage splattered with milkshake in Clacton” – A woman has been arrested on suspicion of assault after throwing a milkshake at Nigel Farage.
• “The Left shows its true colours by cheering on the drenching of Nigel Farage” – We want our politicians accessible, not hidden behind safety glass, a Zoom screen, or a phalanx of bodyguards – something that Left-wing commentators who cheer on the soggy assault of figures they dislike fail to understand, says William Atkinson in the Telegraph.
• “We Brits don’t do revolutions but this election will be as close to one as we’ll get. And the Tories are the aristocratic ruling class totally unprepared for what’s about to engulf them” – The Mail‘s Sarah Vine senses powerful political forces swelling in the country.
• “Top Tory donors ‘withhold donations’ from party’s election campaign” – Three top Tory donors will not support the party’s General Election campaign after private polling showed that the Conservatives are on course for defeat, reports the Telegraph.
• “Angela Rayner has confirmed that Labour is the idiot party” – We must question Rayner’s overall judgement on defence and foreign policy if she considers nuclear disarmament a reasonable objective, says Richard Kemp in the Telegraph.
• “The Tories aren’t serious about protecting biological sex” – In the Spectator, Kellie-Jay Keen says only repeal of the Gender Recognition Act can restore women’s rights by preventing males from legally becoming women.
• “The Questions They Should Have Asked Fauci” – On Brownstone, Debbie Lerman says the first question Congress should be getting to the bottom of is who was actually in charge of the U.S. Covid response.
• “Five reasons the Covid pandemic almost certainly started via Wuhan lab leak, according to Harvard researcher” – Dr. Alina Chan, molecular biologist at Harvard and MIT and co-author of Viral: The search for the Origin of COVID-19, outlined in the New York Times five reasons why the pandemic likely stemmed from a lab accident in China, and the Mail has helpfully summarised it(without a paywall).
• “Better three years too late than never” – On Substack, ‘Galileo’ runs through the key insights from Israel’s state comptroller’s vaccine report on the Covid jabs.
• “Biden to skip Zelensky’s peace summit for George Clooney fundraiser” – Joe Biden will skip a peace summit organised by Volodymyr Zelensky in favour of a Hollywood fundraiser with George Clooney, the Telegraph reports. How are the right-on celebs going to square that?
• “Egypt has questions to answer over Rafah” – Cairo has serious questions to answer over posing as humanitarian while closing the Gaza border to aid and refugees – and maintaining secret military supply tunnels to Hamas, writes Jake Wallis Simons in the Spectator.
• “China unfurls flag on dark side of the Moon as probe heads back to Earth” – China’s Chang’e-6 craft lifted off from the lunar surface on Tuesday morning after a successful mission to collect samples, reports the Telegraph.
• “The Many Problems With Batteries” – There are easier ways for humanity to avoid the problems that batteries are intended to solve, says Iddo Wernick in WUWT.
• “The Abilene Paradox revisited – how we have turbocharged groupthink in the workplace and what to do about it” – On Substack, C.J. Strachan says that since 2020 we have created the perfect incubator for organisational groupthink.
• “Mannheim Updates: The stabbed policeman has died, the assailant Sulaiman Ataee was a years-long illegal resident of Germany, and discourse about the incident continues to be very, very stupid” – Eugyppius with an update on the now fatal stabbing in Germany, where the latest deflection from the actual problem (violently radicalised migrants and far Left activists) is to blame knives, i.e., an inanimate object.
• “We Have Been Subverted” – The preservation of our way of life is at risk because we refuse to see the threats plainly, says Ayaan Hirsi Ali in the Free Press.
• “Biden to Issue Executive Order on Southern Border, Limiting Asylum” – President Biden is expected to sign an executive order that would ban migrants who cross the southern border illegally from claiming asylum, as polls show immigration is a top issue in the election, reports the Wall Street Journal. Why didn’t Sunak think of that? Just ban all asylum claims of illegal immigrants. I guess this means Biden is ‘far Right’ now.
• “Is it true to say that renewables are ‘cheap’? No. At the moment they’re not!” – GB News Economics and Business Editor Liam Halligan delves into Keir Starmer’s energy security plans, branding them vague and slamming the implausible assumptions about renewables.

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