News Round-Up

• “Blairite think tank urges Chancellor to hit expensive houses with higher tax” – The Institute for Public Policy Research wants steeper levies on empty homes and two new top-end council tax bands, reports the Telegraph.
• “Starmer bins portrait of Margaret Thatcher as he redecorates No.10” – Keir Starmer has been labelled “petty” after removing a portrait of Margaret Thatcher from Downing Street – just months after praising the Iron Lady to win over Tory voters, reports GB News.
• “Starmer’s approval rating at lowest on record amid cronyism scandal” – A new poll shows almost two-thirds of voters think the Government is more interested in serving its own interests than those of ordinary people, says the Telegraph.
• “Workers to gain right to a four-day week” – Workers are to be given new rights to demand a four-day week in a law planned for this autumn, reports the Telegraph.
• “Labour’s lawfare nightmare has only just begun” – Equal pay suits are already bankrupting local councils. Soon they could bankrupt the country, warns Fred de Fossard in the Telegraph.
• “Even Labour thinks the Blob is incompetent” – There’s a reason why the Government is resorting to ‘cronyism’. The Civil Service model is broken, says David Frost in the Telegraph.
• “Palestine Action leader ordered to attend court on terrorism charge” – The co-founder of Palestine Action has been summoned to court to face ­charges including an alleged terrorism offence, reports the Times.
• “Could Britain’s IMAMMs (integrated Muslims against mass migration) stop the riots?” – If we want to prevent decades of civil unrest, we need to openly debate mass migration and especially low-quality immigration, explains Andrew Hunt in Conservative Post.
• “The reactions to the Southport stabbings: another example of ‘controlled spontaneity’?” – Was the swift emergence of orderly vigils after the murders of three young girls in Southport, alongside uniform counter-demonstrations against ‘far-Right’ riots, a top-down exercise in ‘controlled spontaneity’? asks Dr. Gary Sidley on his Substack.
• “Germany to slash benefits for migrants who arrive from other EU countries to ‘bed, bread and soap’” – Following the Islamic State-inspired terror attack in Solingen, the German Chancellor is said to be preparing tough new measures to tackle illegal migration, reports the Telegraph.
• “Labour’s outdoor smoking ban could see one in eight pubs close” – Keir Starmer is facing a growing backlash after he confirmed plans to ban smoking in pub gardens, sports grounds and other outdoor venues, says the Mail.
• “‘I’ll never go to the pub again if outdoor smoking is banned’” – Nigel Farage warns that the ban on smoking in pub gardens or on the pavement outside pubs will kill off the traditional pub forever, reports GB News.
• “We need a smokers’ revolt” – A smoking ban in pub gardens is the final, joyless straw, says Tom Slater in Spiked.
• “The Tories didn’t defend liberty in office. But it’s never too late to start” – Sunak’s smoking ban demonstrates that adopting your opponents’ policies doesn’t work; they will always demand more, writes Fraser Nelson in the Telegraph.
• “Toby Young warns of ‘chilling’ crackdown on free speech” – On the Telegraph’s Planet Normal podcast, Liam Halligan and Allison Pearson speak to Toby about Starmer’s riot crackdown.
• “Labour’s watching you! Starmer’s war on free speech” – On the New Culture Forum’s Deprogrammed podcast, Toby joins hosts Harrison Pitt and Connor Tomlinson to discuss Labour’s chilling attacks on free speech in its first few weeks in government – and what we can expect in the months and years ahead.
• “The death of free speech in Britain” – If free speech in the U.K. was born in the 1960s, it seems to be dying in the 2020s, laments Ayaan Hirsi Ali in the Spectator.
• “Tech barons were untouchable. Then France came for Telegram” – The prosecution of Pavel Durov reflects a growing divide between Europe and the U.S. on free speech – and freedom from crime, writes Keiran Southern in the Times.
• “Social media policing is a threat to free speech” – Pavel Durov’s arrest is a watershed moment as governments walk the line between moderation and censorship, notes Rohan Silva in the Times.
• “A trip down memory hole lane” – On Substack, Dr. David McGrogan explores Starmer’s selective political memory.
• “Markets make us richer, planning doesn’t” – Restrictive red tape has strangled our economy, leaving us all worse off, says Daniel Herring in CapX.
• “Study quantifies Germany’s disastrous switch away from nuclear power” – The net result of German politicians’ shortsightedness in phasing out nuclear power is a vastly pricier grid, writes Ross Pomeroy in WUWT?
• “Lucy Letby: questions grow in debate on killer’s convictions” – A number of experts are raising concerns about evidence presented in Lucy Letby’s trials, says Gill Dummigan on the BBC.
• “Covid surge forces schools to close, bring back pandemic-era measures” – Two schools in Alabama and Tennessee have closed just days into the new term amid an “uptick” in Covid cases, and there are fears more disruption could be in store, reports the Mail. 
• “Freedom Research TV: a new documentary My Biggest Battle” – On the Freedom Research Substack, Hannes Sarv discusses a new film that traces the harrowing decline of Heiko Sepp, an extreme triathlete whose health collapsed after the second Covid vaccine dose.
• “Slipshoddiness” – In the New Criterion, Anthony Daniels reviews a new book by the French philosopher and commentator Pascal Bruckner on the post-Covid self-confinement of an increasing number of Westerners.
• “£500,000 memorial misses the mark: where’s the tribute to Britain’s role in ending the slave trade?” – Sadiq Khan’s £500,000 memorial to victims of the transatlantic slave trade is a noble gesture, but it overlooks Britain’s pivotal role in ending the trade, says Laura Dodsworth on her Free Mind Substack.
• “Hope Not Hate – the ‘charity’ built on deceit: part three” – In the final instalment of her three-part exposé for TCW, Karen Harradine reveals how Hope Not Hate’s kangaroo court labels anyone critical of radical Islam as Islamophobic or ‘far-Right’, aiming to silence dissent.
• “Brazil is now a dictatorship” – Brazil has frozen the bank accounts of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet company and is expected to shut off X in a few hours, says Michael Shellenberger on the Public Substack.
• “Kamala Harris mocked for asking Tim Walz to ‘babysit’ interview” – Kamala Harris has been mocked for getting Tim Walz to join her as a “babysitter” in her first major interview since announcing her run for the U.S. Presidency, according to Newsweek.
• “Trump says there are signs Fidel Castro is Justin Trudeau’s dad” – Donald Trump has stoked rumours about Justin Trudeau in his new book by claiming that Fidel Castro could be the Canadian Prime Minister’s father, reports the Mail.
• “Building a new university on firm foundations” – This autumn, the University of Austin (UATX) welcomes its inaugural class, advocating colour-blind merit over identitarian bias, equality over equity, free speech over censorship and truth over falsehoods, writes Joe Lonsdale in City Journal.
• “A passage to doomsday” – Over at City Journal, Theodore Dalrymple ruminates on a rare E.M. Forster sci-fi story, which eerily foreshadowed aspects of our present-day technological dystopia.
• “Join the People’s Revolt: help expose how Labour’s migration plans will bankrupt us by 2030” – The Conservative Post issues a rallying cry to save our country and economy, urging you to contact your MP, the OBR and the Chancellor to demand action.
• “Together 3rd Anniversary Event” – Together’s 3rd Anniversary Event is set to attract around 2,000 people to London on Friday, September 20th, with speakers including Neil Oliver, Ben Habib, Katharine Birbalsingh, Zuby, Allison Pearson, Baroness Claire Fox, Bev Turner, Dan Wootton, Matt Le Tissier and more announced soon. Daily Sceptic readers can get £5 off early bird tickets until the end of Sunday by using coupon code SCEPTIC at checkout.
• “Labor Government’s new ‘disinformation portal’ backfires” – Sky News Australia’s Late Debate team ridicule the Labour Government’s “disinformation portal” – which was set up to tackle fake news but is now getting flooded with complaints about Labour’s own campaign ads.

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