News Round-Up

• “Increasing inheritance tax would be Reeve’s worst mistake yet” – If the Chancellor increases the hated ‘death tax’, she will be making a grave political and economic error, says Mark Littlewood in the Telegraph.
• “How the top 1% pay more than twice their ‘fair’ share of tax” – Britain’s wealthy, who already pay more than their ‘fair’ share of taxes, are at risk as Rachel Reeves tries to raise £40 billion ahead of her Budget, according to the Telegraph.
• “‘A very nice life for a lot less money’: why young people are fleeing high-tax Britain” – A demographic crisis is brewing as emigration from the U.K. among young people speeds up, according to the Telegraph.
• “Top Labour minister drops major Budget hint over tax increase” – The Health Secretary said that the party had not ruled out upping the NICs made by businesses before being elected, as Rachel Reeves faces accusations of ripping up a manifesto pledge, reports the Mail.
• “Tories blast Labour’s Budget ‘myth’ about £22 billion cash black hole” – Shadow Business Secretary Kevin Hollinrake has lashed out about the “myth” of the last Tory government’s £22 billion ‘black hole’ after it was revealed the Government is to plough billions more into the NHS, says the Mail.
• “The most dangerous female economist in the world” – In CapX, famous economist Deirdre McCloskey takes aim at Mariana Mazzucato, Labour’s favourite economist.
• “Investment summit to increase energy bills” – Over half of the announcements at Labour’s global investment summit are energy related and all will increase our energy bills through subsidies, says David Turver on his Eigen Values Substack.
• “Angela Rayner receives permanent seat on National Security Council after being sidelined by PM” – Sir Keir is trying to scotch rumours he’s fallen out with his Deputy by giving her a permanent seat on the U.K.’s National Security Council, reports the Telegraph.
• “Starmer sparks row after removing Shakespeare portrait from No. 10” – The Prime Minister has been accused of consigning the Bard “to the dustbin” after the 18th Century painting or Shakespeare by Louis Francois Roubiliac hanging in one of the state rooms at Downing Street was placed in storage, according to the Mail.
• “Pressure on PM to rethink Rwanda plan axe as EU talks offshore ‘hubs’” – Migration will dominate an EU leaders’ summit in Brussels today, after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called for “innovative ways to counter” it, reports the Mail.
• “The EU is waking up to the same immigration catastrophe as Britain” – More countries are finally realising they can never solve migration under the current human rights framework, says columnist Nick Timothy in the Telegraph.
• “Coventry is buckling under strain of overseas arrivals” – More than one in four Coventry residents were born outside the U.K. and one in seven (almost 50,000 people) have arrived since 2011, says the Mail.
• “White Britons dying at higher rate than ethnic minorities” – So much for ‘White Privilege’ – new analysis from the Office for National Statistics suggests white Britons are more likely to die than non-white Britons, reports the Telegraph.
• “The Double Standards of Sadiq Khan” – In the New Conservative, Frank Haviland takes aim at the duplicitous London Mayor.
• “Kemi has shown she’s fearless. That’s exactly what our party needs” – Former Coservative leader Iain Duncan Smith argues in the Telegraph that Kemi has the right attributes to lead the party: integrity, courage, and the ability to grow in stature as opposition leader.
• “Kemi Badenoch’s no-nonsense approach can win back voters” – In the Mail, Nicholas Soames says the Conservative Party needs a leader who can not only unite the parliamentary party’s warring factions but re-invigorate the Tories through a shared sense of purpose. That person is Kemi Badenoch.
• “‘Parenting is a two-person job. Where are the dads?’” – In an interview in the Sunday Times, the Tory leadership contender credits her own supportive, two-parent family for her success.
• “J.K. Rowing reveals she has turned down a peerage twice” – The Harry Potter author, 59, has announced she’s twice turned down a peerage, reports the Mail, after Kemi Badenoch floated the idea because of her stance on gender issues.
• “What I told Nick Robinson” – Matt Goodwin recounts his recent interview with Nick Robinson on his Substack.
• “Mark Drakeford ‘exempt’ from second home tax on holiday chalet” – The former Welsh First Minister’s Pembrokeshire property has been spared from a council tax surcharge on second homes, reports the Telegraph. Well I never!
• “Top police chief demands ‘whole system reform’ to punish shoplifters” – Paul Sanford, Chief Constable of Norfolk Police, says any toleration of shoplifting leads to more serious criminal activity, according to the Mail.
• “Does the Lucy Letby case stack up? We covered it and can’t agree” – The BBC journalists behind a new book and two Panorama documentaries say the debate is missing crucial information that they spotted during her trial, reports the Sunday Times.
• “Schools, police, country piles: nothing’s safe from performative grandstanding” – That’s the thing about ‘PGB’. It often rebounds, nastily, upon those who indulge in it, says columnist Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times.
• “Jeremy Clarkson on his heart scare: Was I days from death? Maybe” – Good news, I didn’t need a heart bypass. Just a Dyno-Rod up my arm, says Jeremy Clarkson in his Sunday Times column.
• “TikTok ‘anti-Zionists’ are no laughing matter” – TikTok is spreading a bone-chilling combination of lethal ignorance and ill-intent towards the Jewish state, says Zoe Strimpel in the Telegraph.
• “Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s wife appears holding $32,000 bag” – Watch a video on Mailonline showing Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s wife holding a $32,000 bag as she makes her way along a tunnel leading to her husband’s secret lair.
• “Israel’s plan to launch air attack on Iran leaked” – Leaked documents show that Israel is preparing munitions and drone activity for an attack on Iran, according to the Telegraph.
• “Ukrainian men hide in houses to avoid conscription to fight Russia” – Ukrainian men have been missing their daughters’ birth, avoiding public transport and not attending weddings – all to get out of being conscripted into the military, says the Mail.
• “Parents are in revolt against comprehensive school monopoly” – Governments have been raising the school leaving age for decades, but what has this actually achieved? If the time spent in class was a measure of how educated the country was, it would be marvellous, says Peter Hitchens in the Mail.
• “Michigan’s inflated voter rolls draw scrutiny as election looms” – Michigan has more than 8.4 million registered voters, but in some counties the number of registered voters exceeds the number of people who are of voting age, reports the Washington Examiner.
• “Oil boss’s tenth-floor fall is latest in strange Russian deaths” – Mikhail Rogachev, the former Vice-President of Yukos, a now-defunct oil and gas company, ‘fell’ out of a 10th floor window in Moscow, according to the Times.
• “Follow the Science” – A new book by Sharyl Attkisson shows how Big Pharma misleads, obscures and prevails, says the Naked Emperor on his Substack.
• “Steakhouse chain sounds out investors as meat makes a comeback” – ‘Chop house’, a steak house chain, is hoping to expand as veganism goes out of fashion, according to the Telegraph.
• “BBC boss fights plans for ‘suburban’ homes near his £4 million Oxfordshire farmhouse” – BBC Director General Tim Davie has objected to planning permission being sought for two new properties just yards from his family home, reports the Telegraph.
• “The middle-class women who are tripping balls” – In the Free Press, Kat Rosenfield writes about a new phenomenon whereby respectable, middle-class housewives in America’s affluent suburbs are getting high on MDMA and Magic Mushrooms.
• “SNP claims there are 24 genders” – In what must rank as a perfect Telegraph story, the SNP has announced there are 24 genders.
• “Drag bingo and pronoun badges: Taxpayers foot £650k bill for public sector Pride celebrations” – NHS trusts, councils and fire services are spending on “extravagant events” and “pointless gimmicks” to celebrate Pride rather than improving essential services, says the Telegraph.
• “You have to watch this!” – A police officer in the U.S. deals brilliantly with a driver who refuses to hand over his licence and claims to identify as a cat. Too good to be real!

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