News Round-Up

• “Questions over why German attack suspect was not stopped despite threats” – The German authorities are under pressure to explain why a doctor ­accused of murdering a child and four women with a car at a Christmas market was not stopped despite being well known to police, reports the Times.
• “Islamism still haunts us” – Europe hasn’t woken up to the barbarism in our midst, writes Tom Slater in Spiked.
• “‘What I think about the latest atrocity in Germany’” – We should stop tolerating people who do not tolerate our way of life, says Matt Goodwin on his Substack.
• “Analysing the analyst” – On his blog, Mark Steyn gives his take on the recent terrorist attack in Germany.
• “Rachel ‘the Grinch’ Reeves steals 45% of your donations, charities say” – Rachel Reeves’s Budget tax grab means charities will hand over 45 pence of every pound donated to the Government, reveals the Mail.
• “Taxman rakes in millions in death duties from ‘gifts gone wrong’” – The Telegraph highlights how families’ well-meaning attempts to avoid inheritance tax are backfiring, with the taxman reaping millions as rising house prices and frozen thresholds drag more estates into the tax net.
• “Labour opens door to banning Musk donation with new law” – Labour ministers could use new laws to block Elon Musk from donating millions to Reform U.K., reports the Express.
• “Elon Musk just one of a number of billionaires willing to donate to Reform, claims party treasurer” – Reform U.K.’s treasurer Nick Candy says “a number of billionaires” are willing to donate to the party in addition to Elon Musk, according to LBC.
• “Lord Mandelson set to work with Farage to win over Trump” – Britain’s new ambassador to the U.S. is ready to engage with Nigel Farage as part of efforts to persuade Mr. Trump not to go to war with Britain on tariffs, says the Telegraph.
• “Labour minister interviewed over corruption investigation” – Labour minister Tulip Siddiq has been interviewed by Cabinet Office officials over allegations of embezzlement by her family, reports the Express.
• “Labour could introduce votes for 16 year-olds from next year” – The Leader of the Commons Lucy Powell says that laws allowing 16 year-olds to vote in elections could be introduced as early as next year, according to the Mail.
• “Labour is wrecking school reforms that produced results” – In the Times, Toby blasts Labour for wrecking the Tories’ successful education reforms.
• “BBC refusal to play anti-Starmer Christmas charity song will cost pensioner donations, claims singer” – According to singer Dean Ager, the BBC’s refusal to play his anti-Starmer Christmas song ‘Freezing This Christmas’ has cost vital donations for pensioners, says the Telegraph.
• “Keir Starmer, the Christmas Grinch” – If someone were to read the runes, this first Labour Christmas under Prime Minister Keir Starmer would not augur well, writes Robin Ashenden in the Spectator.
• “‘Strained’ Keir Starmer badly needs holiday, his friends say” – After a bruising start to his premiership and a record collapse in personal ratings, friends say that Sir Keir “needs a lot of soothing and buoying up at the moment”, reports the Mail.
• “Soldiers quit in thousands despite Labour’s pay rise” – Around 15,000 people left the military in the year to October, 7,778 of which were declared “voluntary outflow” – meaning they left the Armed Forces of their own accord, says LBC.
• “Alan Bates reveals he hasn’t received compensation from Post Office” – Sir Alan Bates has revealed that he still hasn’t received any compensation from the Post Office, despite the inquiry into the Horizon scandal and his knighthood, reports the Mail.
• “Our town has been called one of Britain’s most miserable – here’s why” – The Mail exposes the bleak reality of Barking, where locals decry the decline of their once-thriving town into a “ghost town” of empty shops, rising crime and soaring costs.
• “Interactive map reveals the towns with the most barbers” – Across England and Wales, with its population of 60,854,727, there are now 44,995 barber shops and salons – one for every 1,352 people on average, reports the Mail.
• “How much are migrants earning? Not even Jonathan Portes knows” – Bad data on who is in the country has turned migration policy into a guessing game, says Robert Colvile in CapX.
• “Is Ed Miliband the Net Zero Stalin?” – On Substack, Tom Ed exposes Ed Miliband’s Net Zero agenda as a dangerous exercise in self-congratulation, where he not only leads the charge on energy policy but also reports to himself.
• “Miliband’s Clean Power 2030 Greatest Hits” – On his Eigen Values Substack, David Turver explores the impact of the Clean Power 2030 plan through the medium of song.
• “Coal use hits record high in 2024 thanks to India and China” – Despite the elites deeming it a dirty fossil fuel, global coal use is set to reach an all-time high of 8.77 billion tonnes in 2024, marking the third consecutive year of record-breaking consumption, writes Leslie Eastman in Legal Insurrection.
• “Teachers need right to work from home, says Education Secretary” – Bridget Phillipson says that teachers should be allowed to work from home to stem the tide of people leaving the profession, according to GB News. You what?
• “Truant Scottish children ‘bribed’ with game consoles and mountain bikes to go to school” – A Scottish school is offering a string of prizes including handheld computer consoles and mountain bikes to its pupils – simply for turning up, reports the Mail.
• “The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill – some thoughts from an ill adult” – In TCW, Julia Englehardt, writing as someone living with a terminal brain tumour, delivers a searing critique of the U.K.’s proposed assisted dying legislation.
• “Western liberals hate democracy – and here’s the proof” – On Substack, Paul Embery exposes the double standard of Western liberals who champion democracy – unless it’s a populist conservative shaking up the status quo in an EU and NATO member state.
• “The rise and fall of Western science” – In TCW, Tomas Fürst examines how science succumbed to the corrupting influences of Big Government and business.
• “Italian deputy PM faces six years in jail for “kidnapping” NGO migrant boat” – A Sicilian court will soon decide if Matteo Salvini “kidnapped” 147 migrants in 2019 by blocking their boat for nearly three weeks, a move he defends as crucial to stopping illegal immigration, reports Gript.
• “American Navy pilots shot down over Red Sea in ‘friendly fire’” – The U.S. military says that Navy pilots flying over the Red Sea were shot down in an apparent “friendly fire” incident, according to the Mail.
• “Donald Trump threatens to seize control of Panama Canal unless it lowers prices for U.S.” – Donald Trump has threatened to retake control of the Panama Canal unless “rip-off” transit fees are reduced for U.S. ships, reports ABC News.
• “How Apprentice creator went from London to Donald Trump’s inner circle” – The Mail profiles Mark Burnett, the former East London paratrooper turned TV mogul, who has been appointed Donald Trump’s Special Envoy to the U.K.
• “The delicious humiliation of the centrist dads” – Trump’s shock victory was a ‘Bonfire Night of the Vanities’ for Britain’s liberal pundits, writes Simon Evans in Spiked.
• “Don’t expect media apologies – ever – for the Duke lacrosse case” – In City Journal, Harry Stein slams the media for burying its role in the Duke lacrosse scandal, where false rape charges and reckless hysteria have been quietly forgotten.
• “‘I’m being sued over my pub’s ‘racist’ name – I refuse to change it’” – In the Mail, the landlord of an historic pub called The Saracen’s Head has spoken out about how he could be forced out of business after his watering hole has been targeted by a convicted terrorist over its “racist” name.
• “Fury as convicted terrorist threatens to sue two more Saracen’s Head landlords over their ‘racist’ pub signs” – Two more Saracen’s Head pubs face legal action from a convicted terrorist over “racist” signs, reports the Sun.
• “Our late Queen deserves better than a woke statue” – Demands that a new monument has to be “inclusive” and “sustainable” says more about our times than the service of Her Majesty, says Dia Chakravarty in the Telegraph.
• “Two years in prison for a tweet?” – On the last episode of Free Speech Nation, Andrew Doyle interviews Icelandic gay rights activist Eldur Smári Kristinsson, who faces up to two years in prison for denouncing chemically-induced male lactation on social media.
• “An atheist country gets the Church it deserves” – The CofE mirrors our nation. It should come as no surprise that our clerisy act as badly as we do, says Tim Stanley in the Telegraph.
• “The surprising truth about the West’s Christian revival” – Many Christian leaders have noticed something happening in their churches and in the wider culture: Christianity is becoming popular, writes Justin Brierley in the Spectator.
• “Is this why Rees-Mogg had his hours cut at GB News?” – Jacob Rees-Mogg has had his screen time on GB News halved after bosses fumed over him watching BBC News instead of their own channel on his Discovery+ reality show, reports the Mail. 
• “Social media firms to be forced to ‘drive out’ under-age users” – Ofcom plans to announce that social media firms will use facial recognition age checks to “drive out” underage children from their sites, according to the Telegraph.
• “‘Two-faced’ Yvette Cooper confronted in mince pie row” – A video on X shows a woman giving Home Secretary Yvette Cooper a piece of her mind while she is handing out mince pies in her constituency.

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