News Round-Up

• “Rotherham grooming gang jailed for total of 106 years” – Seven members of a Rotherham grooming gang have been convicted at Sheffield Crown Court, reports the Mail.
• “Low-skilled migrants cost taxpayers £150,000 each” – The Office of Budget Responsibility says low-skilled migrants are a drain on the public finances, according to the Telegraph.
• “The Left can no longer hide from the terrible costs of mass migration” – Far from benefiting the country, too many unskilled migrants are a net cost to other taxpayers says Camilla Tominey in the Telegraph.
• “Keir Starmer ‘seeks to emulate’ Italy’s crackdown on illegal migration” – The number of migrants arriving in Italy across the Mediterranean has fallen by 62% under Giorgia Meloni’s government. The PM will meet her for talks on Monday, hoping to repeat her success, says the Times.
• “Prisoners released early are already back in jail” – Some of the prisoners released this week are already back behind bars, according to the Telegraph. They were released on license and some have already breached those conditions.
• “Prisoners should jump housing queue to cut crime, says Sadiq Khan” – The London Mayor says the recently released prisoners should be given council houses to reduce the likelihood of re-offending, says the Telegraph. Is he for real?
• “Labour MPs’ Hypocrisy Over Winter Fuel Allowance” – Guido Fawkes trawls through the social media accounts of Labour MPs and finds numerous instances of them condemning the hated Tories for supposedly planning to cut the pensioners’ winter fuel subsidy.
• “The first rule of Labour: if it’s terrible, they’ll do it” – The Labour Party seems to have adopted a grimly predictable modus operandi: “If it’s terrible, they’ll do it”, says Laura Dodsworth on her Free Mind Substack.
• “Police minister’s purse stolen at police conference” – The minister in charge of policing had her purse stolen at a conference about… policing, reports the BBC.
• “Starmer set to leave US without approval for Storm Shadow strikes by Ukraine” – Sir Keir Starmer was set to leave Washington last night without any announcement on allowing Ukraine to fire long-range missiles into Russia, says the Telegraph.
• “The asteroid may finally be approaching the EU” – The Brussels elites have run out of road, writes David Frost in the Telegraph, as it will soon have to dawn even on Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party.
• “Graham Brady reveals secrets of how five Tory PMs were ousted” – The new tell-all memoir from the former 1922 Committee chief – Kingmaker – lifts the lid on backstabbing at the heart of Westminster, according to the Telegraph.
• “Controversial census claim of 262,000 trans people downgraded” – The number of trans people in the U.K., as assessed by the Office for National Statistics, has been reduced after Oxford sociologist Michael Biggs persuaded the ONS that some of the respondents misunderstood the question, says the Times.
• “National Trust under fire over artwork that looks like ‘pile of poo’” – The National Trust has come under fire for hosting an art installation that has been compared to a “big pile of poo”, according to the Telegraph.
• “Households face £630 million bill as Miliband takes control of Britain’s electricity network” – Ed Miliband has announced a £630 million deal that will see the Government take control of the national electricity grid, with the cost being borne by households via increased energy bills, reports the Telegraph.
• “The climate scaremongers: Another £12 billion down the Net Zero drain” – Paul Homewood in the Conservative Woman documents another instance of our climate change-obsessed ruling class spunking taxpayers’ money up the wall.
• “Plans for Britain’s first coal mine in 30 years scrapped after landmark legal defeat” – Approval for Britain’s first coal mine in 30 years was “legally flawed”, says a High Court Judge in victory for climate activists, according to the Telegraph.
• “Fiat pauses production of electric 500 city car due to slump in demand” – Fiat has suspended the production of its electric 500 model for four weeks due to a slump in demand, says the Mail.
• “Britain needs energy abundance – that means going nuclear” – James O’Malley in CapX says the Labour Government needs to start turbo-charging nuclear energy.
• “Swiss Parliament adopts motion to “immediately suspend” support for UNRWA” – The Swiss Parliament’s lower house, the National Council, adopted a motion earlier in the week to “immediately suspend” support for UNRWA, reports UN Watch.
• Suddenly we’re in the grip of a 1970s-style brain drain” – Like a great murmuration of migratory birds, the millionaires of Britain are massing in the departure lounges, writes Boris Johnson in the Mail. They are revving their private jets and stubbing out their Cohibas in the bars of Mayfair.
• ”Doctor who helped convict Letby previously said there was ‘no objective evidence’ against her” – A doctor whose testimony helped convict Lucy Letby had previously said that there was “no objective evidence” against the nurse, says Sarah Knapton in the Telegraph.
• “Carol Vorderman’s manifesto is lazy, narcissistic and deeply depressing” – Savage, one-star review of Carole Vorderman’s new memoir by Kara Kennedy in the Telegraph.
• “Answers to 12 Bad Anti-Free Speech Arguments” – In Quillette, Greg Lukianoff sets out how to effectively counter some perennial arguments against free speech.
• “German Foreign Office try to dunk on Trump’s debate performance but get their numbers wrong and provoke the ire of a close adviser to the man who may well be the next president of the United States” – On Substack, Egyppius criticises the German Foreign Office for siding with the ABC ‘moderators’ in the US Presidential debate.
• “Resistance is Futile!” – Douglas Adams would have noted the link between the Labour Party and 1978, says Mr Chips on his eponymous Substack. And it’s not what you think.
• “U.K. could follow Australia in banning social media for young teenagers” – U.K. Ministers are considering ways to prevent children under the age of 16 from accessing harmful content online, citing its impact on mental health, reports the Times.
• “Scenes from the literary blacklist” – Widespread censorship is killing America’s literary community, say Elizabeth Kaye Cook and Melanie Jennings in Persuasion.
• “Nigel Farage lashes out over fears he could lose GB News job” – Politicians’ media appearances are under scrutiny as part of efforts to improve standards, reports the Telegraph.
• “Oxbridge told to cap private school intake at 10% of admissions” – A new book about the British class system suggests using a lottery of the best performing 5% of pupils to select future students at Oxford, Cambridge and the Russell Group universities and capping the total number so it’s no more than 10% of the total, according to the Times.
• “Commonwealth chief candidates all back slavery reparations” – All three contenders to replace Baroness Scotland as Secretary-General of the Commonwealth want Britain to make amends for colonialism, says the Times.
• “Protester who joked she’d be deported is given community service” – Shenissa Govanni wore a black and white T-shirt displaying an image of one of Hamas’ spokespeople, Abu Obaida, at the London march on February 17th, reports the Mail. But she was not sent to prison. Two-tier criminal justice system?
• “Pope says Kamala Harris supports ‘killing babies’” – The 87-year-old has said the election is a choice between two evils for the American people, with Kamala being the more evil of the two, reports the Telegraph.
• “The Grand Tour was the last gasp of un-woke TV for dads” – After 22 years, Clarkson and co have split up for good, reports Michael Deacon in his Telegraph column. Is this the last we’ll ever see of them?
• “Australia threatens fines for social media giants enabling misinformation” – The Australian PM, Anthony Albernese, says the Government will fine social media companies for allowing ‘misinfrormation’ to appear; according to Reuters.
• “’This for me is a spectacular blunder’” – Rakib Ehsan rails against the ONS for over-estimating the number of trans people living in the UK.

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