News Round-Up

• “Starmer’s Chagos betrayal is unforgivable” – In giving away Britain’s Chagos Islands to Mauritius, Keir Starmer would do well to remember that the objective of foreign policy is to make our country safer, richer and more influential – not to impress judges, journalists and NGOs, writes Sam Tidwell in the Telegraph.
• “‘America will be furious and Beijing delighted’: how Starmer handed Chagos to China” – Critics are describing the decision to give back the Chagos Islands, a vital national asset, as a “strategic disaster”, write Nick Gutteridge and Dominic Penna in the Telegraph.
• “Labour’s Chagos surrender shows we need a stronger China strategy” – The surrender of the Chagos Islands exposes Labour’s foreign policy of “progressive realism” for what it really is – a recipe for putting their reputation among the global diplomatic elite above Britain’s national interests, says Robert Jenrick in the Telegraph.
• “Keir Starmer’s EU reset is built on a lie. It won’t bring a better deal for Britain” – One can only fear the worst from Keir Starmer’s plan to “reset” the UK/EU relationship, which seems to have begun in earnest, writes David Frost in the Telegraph.
• “Why Labour now fears Reform more than the Tories” – As Starmer’s honeymoon period draws to a close, polling shows Farage’s party has been capitalising on Labour’s summer woes, says the Telegraph.
• “‘U.K. needs referendum on ECHR’” – Boris Johnson says there is now a “strong case” for Britain to have a referendum on its membership of the European Convention on Human Rights, according to LBC.
• “In defence of Rosie Duffield” – In the Spectator, Rod Liddle explores the apparent problem which Left-wing men have with women.
• “The baffling decision to defund a national academy for mathematics” – It is hard not to conclude that the only reason the Government is not supporting a powerful new voice for mathematics is that they don’t want to listen to it, says John Armstrong in the Spectator.
• “Reflections on 15 years in the editor’s chair” – In the Spectator, Fraser Nelson looks back on his tenure as editor of the esteemed magazine.
• “Did Michael Gove mean what he said?” – In the Spectator, Toby Young reveals the behind-the-scenes drama of Michael Gove’s surprise editorial takeover at a dinner hosted by Fraser Nelson.
• “Hugh Grant, Mary Beard and Damian Lewis attack ‘disastrous’ sale of the Observer” – Hugh Grant, Mary Beard and Damian Lewis are among dozens of celebrities who have hit out at the Guardian over “disastrous” plans to sell the Observer, says the Telegraph.
• “How Ed Miliband plans to conjure electricity out of nothing” – The Government plans to repeal a couple of laws, making electricity cheaper at a stroke. Which laws? Why, the first and second laws of thermodynamics of course, writes Matt Ridley in the Spectator.
• “West Ham owner says super-rich are fleeing the country ahead of Reeves Budget” – West Ham United chairman David Sullivan blames the Government’s crackdown on non-doms for driving the super rich out of Britain, reports the Telegraph.
• “How deadly eye-bleeding ‘Marburg virus’ could reach the U.K. in weeks” – Infectious disease experts warn that the Marburg virus, which kills up to 9 in 10 people it infects through horrific bleeding from the orifices, could soon reach Britain, according to the Mail.
• “The lessons of the Lucy Letby case” – In part four of Private Eye’s special report, Dr. Phil Hammond assess the prospects of Lucy Letby’s appeal, should it be granted.
• “Northern Ireland Public Health Bill: what is going on?” – On Together’s YouTube channel, Paul Frew, a Northern Ireland Assembly Member, discusses the proposed Public Health Bill and what people can do to oppose it (whether you live in Northern Ireland or not).
• “Israel was right to ignore the West” – The wisdom of the international community is that ceasefires are always desirable and that violence is never the answer. As so often, these wise voices have no idea what they’re talking about, says Douglas Murray in the Spectator.
• “Why you’re probably Islamophobic” – There’s genuine pain in ‘Muslims Don’t Matter’, a polemic by Baroness Warsi, but her concept of Islamophobia remains a threat to free speech, writes Suzanne Moore in the Telegraph.
• “Israel’s iron prime minister” – Benjamin Netanyahu has combined devious foreign policy with devious domestic politics, say Niall Ferguson and Jay Mens, admiringly, in the Spectator.
• “‘Putin would not have invaded Ukraine if Trump was president’” – Speaking to the Telegraph, Boris says that Putin would not have invaded Ukraine if Trump had been president and that the world is a better place when the U.S. has a strong leader.
• “Don’t blame Ukraine for not giving up” – Ukraine may never have a better opportunity to fight off Putin than it does now – until Russia replenishes its losses, says Svitlana Morenets in the Spectator.
• “Tim Walz is weird” – On Substack, Eugyppius reacts to the recent U.S. Vice Presidential debate and the weird gestures, facial expressions and syntactic entanglements of Tim Walz.
• “They do not hide it: another top politician wants to clamp down on free speech” – John Kerry is not the only top figure in the Western political world who wants to clamp down on free speech, says Hannes Sarv on the Freedom Research Substack.
• “John Kerry and the circuitous assault on free speech” – Enemies of the First Amendment have vowed to “hammer it out of existence” and are prepared to circumvent legal protections, warns the Brownstone Institute.
• “Fresh doubts raised over Gary Lineker’s future at Match of the Day” – Fresh doubts are swirling over Gary Lineker’s future as host of Match of the Day, with the Mail reporting that his time on the show may be nearing an end.
• “Britain has completely lost the plot” – On X, Ian Miles Cheong flags up a video from a U.K. council training module which urges employees to inform on members of the public for having anti-mass immigration views.

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