News Round-Up

• “Britain ‘warned of Russian meddling in Chagos deal’” – Government ministers were told Putin’s officials attempted to “undermine U.K. interests” by whipping up Mauritian discontent over the Chagos Islands, reports the Mail.
• “Starmer’s allies accused of briefing Tories on phone fraud storm” – The Labour Left is up in arms, claiming Keir Starmer’s allies orchestrated a “political hit job” on former Transport Secretary Louise Haigh, says the Mail.
• “Minister squirms over PM’s past claim ‘lawbreakers can’t be lawmakers’” – Senior Cabinet minister Pat McFadden was left squirming when grilled about Keir Starmer’s claim that “lawmakers can’t be lawbreakers”, which he made before appointing Louise Haigh to his top team, according to the Mail.
• “Business confidence in U.K. economy falls to lowest level since lockdown” – Optimism about the U.K. economy has plummeted to levels last seen at the start of the Covid pandemic following Rachel Reeves’ disastrous Budget, reports the Mail.
• “Starmer ‘sidelines’ flagship pledge to make Britain fastest-growing nation in G7” – Keir Starmer will “sideline” his flagship pledge to make the U.K. the fastest-growing economy in the G7 when he unveils new targets to make British people richer, says the Telegraph.
• “Keir Starmer sees ratings slump as PM eyes major ‘reset’” – An Opinium survey shows that just 22% of voters approve of Sir Keir’s performance as premier, compared to 54% who disapprove, reports the Mail.
• “Starmer will launch war on ‘Blob’ to get Whitehall to deliver his major changes” – Keir Starmer is ordering the Cabinet and the next head of the Civil Service to reform Whitehall so it can focus on his missions rather than operating like “fiefdoms”, according to the Sun.
• “The Archers’ ‘tractor tax’ bills calculated” – Telegraph analysis reveals that families who have featured in The Archers since its first episode in 1950 would face bills of up to £2.5 million under the Chancellor’s inheritance tax raid on farms.
• “BBC under fire after Archers brushes over tax raid on farmers” – BBC drama The Archers has been slammed for underplaying the Government’s tax raid on farms, reports the Mail.
• “The mass migration myth is falling apart” – Lazy assumptions that Britain needs migrant-driven population growth to thrive are being shot to pieces, says Jeremy Warner in the Telegraph.
• “Where are the calls for blasphemy laws coming from?” – Decades of failure on immigration and integration makes figures like Tahir Ali an inevitability; his recent intervention highlights a deeper sickness in British society, writes Sam Bidwell in the Critic.
• “New MPs demand a family-friendly six-hour day for parliament” – A group of new MPs have suggested that Parliament should stop sitting during the evening and hold some debates remotely to make the Commons more family-friendly, reports the Times.
• “Nigel Farage is wrong – the political centre ground hasn’t split, it’s vanished” – There can be no core consensus when the whole vocabulary of Western politics no longer makes sense to anyone, argues Janet Daley in the Telegraph.
• “Labour leaves door open to loophole that could send Elgin Marbles back to Greece” – Labour could use a loophole in the Charities Act 2022 to return the Elgin Marbles to Greece, exploiting a clause that lets museums offload artefacts if there’s a “moral obligation” to do so, reports the Telegraph.
• “Smithfield Market: chefs bemoan the coming closure of one of London’s only 24-hour operations” – One of the city’s famed but few nocturnal operations, a wholesale food market in situ for almost 900 years, is set to close after the City of London Corporation revealed its council voted to call time on both Smithfield and Billingsgate fish market, reports the Standard.
• “Groucho Club: man, 34, arrested on suspicion of rape” – A 34 year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of raping a woman in the Groucho, one of London’s best known private members clubs, according to Sky News.
• “Fuel Minister heats £4 million Notting Hill home from public purse” – The Cabinet minister who axed pensioners’ winter fuel payments has her own £350-a-month energy bills paid by the taxpayer – while she lives in a £4 million home, reports the Mail.
• “Major car manufacturer ‘on the brink of collapse’” – Nissan, lagging behind rivals in the hybrid race, faces the alarming prospect of collapse within a year, says the Mail. 
• “Britain has a choice: amend the electric car mandate or let the industry go bust” – The U.K.’s Net Zero policies are now costing serious numbers of jobs – and threatening entire regional economies, warns Liam Halligan in the Telegraph.
• “How the Zero Emissions Vehicle mandate is skewing the U.K. car market” – In the Telegraph, MG’s Guy Pigounakis exposes how the U.K.’s Zero Emissions Vehicle mandate is distorting the car market, pushing manufacturers into market manipulation and imposing massive fines on them.
• “‘The Great Grid Gamble‘” – A new report by the CPS exposes Ed Miliband’s 2030 decarbonisation plan as based on inflated forecasts and unrealistic assumptions.
• “The International Criminal Court has zero credibility left. It cannot survive” – The ICC broke its own rules when it issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu. It is not fit for purpose, says Sir Michael Ellis in the Telegraph.
• “On Mary and the mob” – The backlash to the new Netflix film Mary is about something much deeper: the attempt to de-Judaize Christianity, writes Rod Dreher in the Free Press.
• “Children carry out surge of contract killings as Swedish gangs exploit loophole in the law” – In Sweden, gangs are exploiting a legal loophole that protects children under 15 from prosecution, recruiting kids as young as 11 to carry out contract killings, reports James Rothwell in the Telegraph.
• “Zelensky says he needs Nato guarantees before entering peace talks with Putin” – Volodymyr Zelensky says that Ukraine needs security guarantees from NATO and additional weapons for self-defense before engaging in talks with Russia, according to the Telegraph.
• “China sends officials to study effects of sanctions on Russia as it eyes up Taiwan invasion” – China has sent officials to the Russian central bank to study the effects of Western sanctions for a better understanding of how it would be affected if it were to invade Taiwan, reports the Telegraph.
• “Hysterical reactions to Trump’s re-election only alienate voters” – Americans need less primal screaming from progressives and more sanity, says Zoe Strimpel in the Telegraph.
• “‘MAGA can rule for 50 years and Farage will be PM’” – In the Times, firebrand Trump ally Steve Bannon tells Louise Callaghan that defeating “whining” Democrats was just the beginning – at home and abroad.
• “‘I was forced to pull out my teeth after waiting to go to the dentists’” – A woman says she was forced to pull out her teeth after waiting nearly seven years for an NHS dentist appointment, according to the Mail.
• “‘People treat the NHS like a buffet. We need to take more responsibility’” – In an interview with the Telegraph’s Chris Harvey, Roger Daltrey stresses the need for greater personal responsibility.
• “‘I became a single mum at 41 thanks to IVF… here’s my advice’” – In the Mail, a single mother who got pregnant via IVF reflects on the rising trend of solo motherhood and the tough realities of raising a son without a father.
• “Divide and conquer” – HART exposes how Pfizer’s latest safety data reveals alarming cardiac risks and multi-system injuries, hidden in plain sight.
• “Sabotaging RFK Jr.’s confirmation will increase vaccine hesitancy” – On Substack, Prof. Vinay Prasad calls out Scott Gottlieb for trying to sabotage RFK Jr.’s nomination, warning that undermining him will only fuel vaccine hesitancy.
• “NHS trust which claimed trans women could breastfeed makes U-turn” – An NHS Trust that spread “misinformation” by claiming biological males could breastfeed as effectively as new mothers has performed a U-turn after outrage from campaigners, reports the Mail.
• “Theatre bosses issue trigger warnings for pantomimes” – Theatre bosses have issued trigger warnings for pantomimes over ”loud noises”, says the Mail.
• “ITV warns viewers Oliver has ‘violence and language from a bygone era’” – Critics are furious that the ITV X streaming service has chosen to issue an “objectionable” and “highly misleading” warning for David Lean’s acclaimed 1948 adaptation of Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist, according to the Mail.
• “Has ‘wokeness’ killed the English literature degree?” – With universities starting to axe English literature, the subject that helped shape Britain’s national identity is falling into crisis, warns Claire Allfree in the Telegraph.
• “Rupert Everett hits out cultural appropriation ‘bulls***’ in acting” – British actor Rupert Everett has branded worries about “cultural appropriation” in films as “just bulls**t”, taking a swipe at activists who he claims are “in charge”, reports the Mail. 
• “Why haters gonna hate Jacob Rees-Mogg” – Perhaps what people really hate about Jacob Rees-Mogg is what people hate about eccentrics generally: that he won’t give in to pressure to conform even a little bit, as the cowardly rest of us do, says Kathleen Stock in UnHerd.
• “Students unable to speak with those who disagree with them, says Ivy League chief” – An Ivy League university president has warned that students can no longer converse with people who disagree with them because of a rise in online “echo chambers”, reports the Telegraph.
• “With Christmas just round the corner, this shirt is a must-have for the season” – Many X users have been getting excited by this new t-shirt with a bar code on it. Press play to find out why.

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