News Round-Up

• “The Tory heirs to Blair are no more” – Badenoch will be favourite for Tory leader, but Jenrick could easily win off the back of his commitments on immigration policy and the ECHR, writes Patrick O’Flynn in the Spectator.
• “The Conservatives have just dodged a bullet” – James Cleverly doesn’t have what it takes to be a good leader. Thank goodness MPs finally realised that, says Tim Stanley in the Telegraph.
• “The ‘disastrous miscalculation’ that could have cost James Cleverly” – The reason Cleverly lost, explains James Groves in the Mail, is because his team lent votes to Jenrick, thinking they had a few to spare and hoping it would mean their candidate would face Jenrick rather than Badenoch in the run-off.
• “‘Why vote for me? I’ve got Nigel Farage rattled’” – Devising a successful plan to lower migration will win back Reform supporters, claims Robert Jenrick in the Telegraph.
• “PM insists Labour won’t give away Falklands following Chagos row” – Keir Starmer insists the Falklands will remain British under Labour as he hit back at Argentina’s most recent threat to gain sovereignty of the islands, reports the Mail.
• “Is Bridget Phillipson the nastiest woman in politics?” – Imposing VAT on fees in the middle of the school year will upend children’s lives for no public benefit, warns Madeline Grant in the Telegraph.
• “Private school VAT raid may exempt military personnel’s children” – The VAT raid on private schools could be changed amid a backlash from military families ahead of the Budget, reports the Independent.
• “Starmer has shown his true colours: Labour hates older people” – First they ditched the winter fuel allowance, now our gerontophobic Government is considering scrapping free prescriptions for over 60s, says Allison Pearson in the Telegraph.
• “Martin Lewis blasts Labour’s Lisa Nandy over winter fuel payments” – Moneysaving expert Martin Lewis has slammed the Government for taking money out of the hands of pensioners following its decision to slash winter fuel payments, reports the Mail.
• “Workers show preference for zero-hours contracts Rayner plans to ban” – Research has found that jobs with zero-hours contracts attract 25% more applicants than equivalent permanent roles, according to the Telegraph.
• “Labour denies forcing police to grant elite security for Taylor Swift” – Yvette Cooper received a free ticket to a Taylor Swift concert just weeks before being involved in the decision to give the pop star VIP police protection for her Wembley tour, reports the Standard.
• “Police assess complaint that Starmer broke electoral law over Lord Alli’s penthouse” – The Met Police is assessing a complaint that Keir Starmer broke electoral law when his family lived in Lord Alli’s penthouse during the General Election campaign but gave their address as Kentish Town, says the Telegraph.
• “Starmer’s deranged agenda is condemning Britain to a fate worse than bankruptcy” – Labour has been in power for less than 100 days, yet the outcome of its socialist war on wealth is all too clear, writes Allister Heath in the Telegraph.
• “Why are high-risk offenders set to be released early?” – High-risk offenders are being released early from chaotic Approved Premises that are more like breeding grounds for reoffending than safe havens for rehabilitation, says David Shipley in the Spectator.
• “We have no idea how many people are living in Britain” – Britain is a surveillance state, but one where the authorities are clueless about who comes in and out, and where they end up, notes Ed West in the Spectator.
• “Does Britain really want less immigration?” – Britain’s population surge, driven by migration, reveals a stark reality: while the economy contracts, the working-age population relies on newcomers to sustain it, says Ross Clark in the Spectator.
• “Braverman’s Cambridge speech postponed after Palestine group’s ‘mob-rule tactics’” – Suella Braverman’s planned speech at Cambridge was derailed by pro-Palestinian protesters, who claimed her “hyper-authoritarian” views were too extreme to be given a platform, reports the Telegraph.
• “Oxford University issues ‘free speech tips’ for students to use” – Oxford University has issued “free speech tips” for students to use which will help them see others’ points of view, says the Mail.
• “Creepy government-funded ‘anti-hate’ organisation run by a weird Egyptian man becomes Germany’s first official internet censor under the Digital Services Act” – The EU’s new Trusted Flaggers, led by the oddball REspect! organisation, are set to police our online speech under the guise of making the internet a “safer and happier” place, says Eugyppius on Substack.
• “Net Zero ‘revolving door’ leaves taxpayers out in the cold” – The U.K.’s costly Net Zero strategy is riddled with unproven tech, questionable accountability and a revolving door of green policy insiders, writes Dia Chakravarty in the Telegraph.
• “Britain shouldn’t copy the EU’s carbon plans” – The U.K. faces potential losses of up to £650 per person from adopting EU carbon tariffs, says Shanker Singham in the Telegraph.
• “BP’s green stupidity beggared belief – no wonder it’s reversed course” – Britain’s oil giants have learned to ‘stick to their knitting’ the hard way, writes Jeremy Warner in the Telegraph.
• “Florence Pugh’s father forced to sell cafe where star used to work” – Clinton Pugh has sold his iconic Café Coco, blaming Oxford’s “traffic calming disaster” for driving him out of business, reports the Mail.
• “How bad will Hurricane Milton be?” – The increasingly fraught descriptions of Hurricane Milton are coming through thick and fast even before it has struck Florida. But how strong is Milton really? wonders Ross Clark in the Spectator.
• “Another pro-mask study has just been debunked” – The maskers seem to rely exclusively on misinformation to get what they want, says Ian Miller on his Unmasked Substack.
• “European Commission fights vaccine transparency court ruling” – The EU executive is appealing a court ruling that it should have provided more details on vaccine contracts, according to Politico.
• “Jeffrey Morris won’t show us the correct analysis of the Czech Republic data” – Moderna’s killing more people, and critics like Jeffrey Morris are dodging the data, says Steve Kirsch on his Substack.
• “The NHS: where does all the money go? – part 9” – On the TTE Substack, Prof. Carl Heneghan and Dr. Tom Jefferson take a look at the number of finance staff employed by the NHS.
• “Thousands of cancer patients in line to share £1.7 billion as GSK settles Zantac cases” – Tens of thousands of Americans are in line to share $2.2 billion after GSK agreed a settlement over claims its indigestion drug caused cancers, reports the Guardian.
• “Six-month cardiac follow-up data finally arrives” – Three years of ignored warnings have led to alarming cardiac complications in children post-vaccination, says Dr. Ros Jones for HART.
• “Why Kamala Harris is ignoring Ukraine on the campaign trail” – Joe Biden has been steadfast in his line against Russia but his heir has other things on her mind at election time, writes Tony Diver in the Telegraph.
• “Musk Derangement Syndrome” – On Substack, Winston Marshall explains why liberal America hates Elon Musk.
• “Non-binary customers win compensation for being asked if they are male or female” – Financial services firms have been forced to pay hundreds of pounds in compensation to non-binary customers over “discriminatory” application forms, reports the Telegraph.
• “Lesbian commander of New Zealand ship sinks $100 million naval vessel – first NZ naval ship sunk since WWII” – The first lesbian commander to be placed in charge of a ship in the New Zealand navy has sunk it, according to Human Events.
• “One in eight Oxford students seek counselling” – One in eight Oxford university students sought counselling last year with most citing anxiety, reports the Times.
• “On millennial snot” – On the Upheaval Substack, Dudley Newright examines the distinctly obnoxious manner in which our elites now talk down to us.
• “Abbington unmasked: Katie Hind reveals foul names she called Giovanni” – The Mail ’s Katie Hind reveals that Amanda Abbington called Giovanni Pernice a string of swear words – and was even deemed to have been the one to start the coarse language by the BBC probe.
• “U.S. plots break-up of Google” – The U.S. Government is considering seeking the break-up of the world’s biggest search engine, Google, which it accuses of causing “pernicious harms” to Americans, according to the BBC.
• “Brazil lifts ban on Elon Musk’s X after it pays $5 million fine” – Brazil’s Supreme Court has given X the green light to return after it paid hefty fines and blocked accounts accused of spreading misinformation, reports the BBC.
• “‘He would be embarrassed by that’” – Matt Ridley tells Spiked that if a leak in the Wuhan Institute of Virology sparked a pandemic backed by Fauci’s funding, it’s clear why Fauci would want to keep a lid on it.

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