News Round-Up

• “Prince Andrew breaks silence after being linked to ‘Chinese spy’” – The Duke of York has said he “ceased all contact” with the businessman accused of being a Chinese spy when concerns were first raised about him, reports the Mail.
• “Chinese ‘spy’ mixed with politicians including George Osborne” – “Close confidant” of the Duke of York had links to influential figures in British politics, says the Telegraph.
• “The unmasking of Prince Andrew’s ‘confidant’ is a wake-up call to the threat we face from China” – The totalitarian state is waging an intelligence war against Britain – and meeting little to no resistance, writes Charles Moore in the Telegraph.
• “Can you tell a good guy from a bad guy in the Middle East?” – “Please excuse the tone of jubilation, but I have been dancing around my kitchen for the past couple of days, in a state well beyond elation, at the removal from power of Bashar al-Assad’s murderous regime in Syria and its successors who, I am convinced, are a little like our own Liberal Democrats,” writes Rod Liddle, sarcastically, in the Spectator.
• “Miliband’s lack of remorse makes him unfit to serve” – As leader of the Opposition, Ed Miliband whipped his MPs to vote against military intervention in Syria when Assad used chemical weapons. Obama flinched as a result. Then the Russians swept in, writes Hamish de Bretton-Gordon in the Telegraph.
• “Ed Miliband refuses to set target for cutting electricity bills” – Labour said before the election that energy bills would come down by £300, but the Energy Secretary would not commit to a figure on BBC Radio 4 yesterday, reports the Times.
• “Miliband to overrule local residents in wind farm building spree” – Unelected planning officers will have the power to brush aside local opposition to major projects, according to the Telegraph.
• “The towns that must build up to 21 times more homes under Labour plan” – A breakdown of Labour’s house building targets has laid bare the scale of the demands being put on local authorities – with London and the South East hardest hit, says the Mail.
• “Miliband to rule on building Britain’s biggest solar farm at Churchill’s ancestral home” – Blenheim faces renewables blitz after a proposal for a huge solar farm gets over a crucial hurdle, reports the Telegraph.
• “Surrey runs out of space for private school children” – The local council in Surrey has no vacancies for pupils in Years 9, 10 or 11 in state schools, as parents are forced out of the independent sector due to Labour’s VAT raid, according to the Telegraph.
• “Starmer promised change – we didn’t know he meant the bad kind” – Five months in, the new Government has either failed to live up to its promises or actively left people worse off, writes Tom Harris in the Telegraph.
• “The charts that show how Reeves killed off economic growth” – Labour doom and gloom has damaged Britain’s growth prospects after only a few months in power, says the Telegraph.
• “Brussels to demand UK surrenders fishing rights and follows EU laws” – The price of a new trade deal with the EU, according to documents leaked to the Times, is that Britain will have to give EU fishermen access to British waters and accept the jurisdiction of the ECJ.
• “Who is François Bayrou, the new Prime Minister of France?” – A three-times failed presidential candidate who was acquitted of embezzlement this year is the new PM of France. How long will this one last, asks Adam Sage in the Times.
• “Ministry of Justice accused of ‘unfounded political diatribe’ against Tories” – Robert Jenrick claims that a “disgraceful” social media video posted by civil servants is pure “Labour propaganda”, reports the Telegraph.
• “Liberals would rather risk the death of a child like Sara Sharif than appear racist” – To prevent further sad stories like hers, we must make it clear that the price of living in our country is abiding by our values, writes Allison Pearson in the Telegraph.
• “Testimony on children and the vaccine that Hallett does not want to hear” – The Conservative Woman publishes four articles detailing the evidence about children and the Covid vaccines that the Hallett inquiry does not want to hear.
• “Brits testing positive for flu nearly doubles in a week” – Surveillance data from the U.K. Health Security Agency show one in five tests (18.6%) for flu carried out at the end of last week came back positive, according to the Mail.
• “Scientists warn over ‘mirror bacteria’ that could wipe out mankind” – A group of 38 leading scientists are calling for a pause on research to create “mirror life” – a form of artificial life which could infect and kill all life on Earth, reports the Mail.
• “Biden gives Pfizer, Moderna immunity from being sued for vax injuries” – Health and Human Services in the U.S. have announced they’re extending a pandemic-era act that protects doctors, pharmacists and other healthcare professionals from being held liable for some injury claims, says the Mail.
• “Trump ‘considering proposal to strike Iran’s nuclear programme’” – The President-elect is weighing up an attack on Iran following the fall of Syria’s Assad, according to the Telegraph.
• “Biden slammed for commuting sentence of notorious ‘Kids-for-Cash’ judge convicted of imprisoning juveniles for $2.1M kickbacks” – Ex-Judge Michael Conahan, the jurist at the center of the so-called ‘Kids-for-Cash’ scandal, was among 1,499 pardons Biden granted in the largest presidential act of clemency on a single day, says the New York Post.
• “Washington bureaucrats race for exit as Trump vows to drain ‘swamp’” – The president-elect’s pledge to “dismantle the deep state” has created a climate of fear among hundreds of thousands of U.S. federal employees, reports the Times.
• “Trump and RFK Jr. will have ‘big discussion’ about vaccines and autism” – The President-elect has talked to Time magazine about his Health Secretary nominee, Ukraine firing missiles into Russia and Elon Musk’s conflicts of interest, according to the Times.
• “RFK Jr. wants daughter-in-law as CIA deputy to ‘prove’ JFK conspiracy” – RFK Jr. claims the CIA killed his uncle. Now he wants Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, a former CIA agent, to prove it, says the Times.
• “Terrified corporation’s dystopian new plan to ensure CEOs are safe” – Companies across America are scrambling to find ways to protect their own CEOs after the murder of UnitedHealthcare Chief Executive Brian Thompson, reports the Mail.
• “Luigi Mangione is a new American nightmare” – It’s UnitedHealth’s Brian Thompson we should revere, not his murderer, says Brendan O’Neil in the Telegraph.
• “Michigan is America’s wokest university. No wonder it’s failing its Jews” – The alleged anti-Semitic remarks of Michigan University diversitycrat Rachel Dawson will intensify the debate about what is really meant by diversity and inclusion in American colleges, according to the Telegraph.
• “The nuclear family? We blew it up years ago” – Now that John Lewis has produced a Christmas ad that features white people, all sorts of thinkers and commentators on the Right have decided that the progressive madness is nearly over. Not so fast, says Mary Wakefield in the Spectator.
• “Dozens of Post Office and Fujitsu staff probed for crimes linked to Horizon scandal” – A 100-strong national task force is probing staff at Fujitsu, the Post Office and legal professionals to see if they’re guilty of any crimes, but no charging decisions will be made until after the public inquiry report, reports the Mail.
• “Meghan’s favoured outlet the Cut says her projects keep ‘flopping’” – The New York magazine off-shoot, formerly impressed by Meghan Markle, has soured on her, according to the Mail.
• “Press watchdog accused of double standards in transgender row” – Helen Joyce says Ipso is guilty of “bias against gender-critical women” after it upheld a complaint by trans author Juno Dawson against the Spectator, but dismissed Joyce’s complaint, says the Telegraph.
• “Gender ideology has been comprehensively beaten: three cheers for Terfs” – Wes Streeting’s decision to make the block on children receiving puberty blockers permanent is welcome, writes Josephine Bartosch in the Telegraph.
• “‘Queer’ plans for Edinburgh’s feminist makeover” – Scotland’s capital city is to be given a makeover to improve safety for “people of marginalised genders”, reports the Mail.
• “Baroness Catherine Meyer facing three week suspension for calling peer ‘Lord Poppadom’ and touching MP’s braids” – A 71-year-old peer has said she might have had three glasses of wine when she called Lord Dholakia “Lord Poppadom” – twice – but does not remember, according to Sky News.
• “A cheery ghost story for Christmas” – Paul Sutton imagine a pub peopled by the ghosts of Horatio Nelson, Winston Churchill and Rudyard Kipling in a Christmas ghost story for his Substack.
• “Vicar leaves pupils in tears with Father Christmas remarks” – The Rev. Dr. Paul Chamberlain has been forced to apologise after telling a group of primary school children that Santa doesn’t exist, reports the Telegraph.
• “Tony’s Chocolonely blasted for leaving a day blank in advent calendar” – Those children unlucky enough to have been bought the Tony Chocaloney advent calendar were left gutted when they went to open door number 10 only to find that there was no chocolate inside. A lesson about inequality, according to the woke chocolatier, says the Mail.
• “Graham Linehan: I’m leaving Britain” – Steerpike in the Spectator reveals that Graham Linehan is leaving Britain for America to write a new sitcom with Andrew Doyle and Rob Schneider.
• “Andrew Doyle and Graham Linehan on the Jordan B. Peterson podcast” – Andrew Doyle and Graham Linehan have appeared on Jordan Peterson’s podcast to discuss creativity, free speech and the new woke orthodoxy.
• “Sir Keir Starmer is my free speech ‘zero’ of the year” – On X, the Free Speech Union has posted a clip of me making the case for why the Union’s members should vote for Sir Keir as this year’s biggest enemy of free speech. He won!

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