News Round-Up

• “Farage calls for crackdown on public sector pension ‘Ponzi scheme’” – Nigel Farage has called for a crackdown on public sector pension “Ponzi schemes” after it emerged a quarter of council tax revenue is funding staff retirement pots, reports the Express.
• “Musk slaps fact-check on Badenoch’s ‘fakery’ tweet in Reform membership numbers row” – Elon Musk has put a fact-check alert on Kemi Badenoch’s tweets in which she claimed that Reform U.K. had faked its membership numbers, says GB News.
• “Without a Tory-Reform pact, we’re sunk – but egos are almost certain to get in the way” – On the European Right there are deep divisions. That is not true of the U.K. – but that won’t make a deal between Reform and the Conservatives any less difficult, writes Daniel Hannan in the Telegraph.
• “Starmer’s ratings ‘catastrophic’ with rural voters furious at farm tax raid” – Polling for the Telegraph suggests just one in five respondents believe Labour cares about people who live and work in the countryside.
• “Banned farmers’ adverts on the Tube shows how Labour censor dissent” – The commissars at Sadiq Khan’s Transport for London have decided that there shall be no voices of rural Britain on the London Underground, writes Robert Hardman in the Mail.
• “Former Boris Johnson adviser raises millions in attempt to ‘crack’ polling system” – Former Boris Johnson adviser Ben Warner has raised millions of pounds from investors to reshape the polling industry in the wake of Donald Trump’s White House victory, reports the Telegraph.
• “Northern Ireland and British nationalists” – On the J’accuse Substack, Rhodes Napier exposes Britain’s harsh crackdown on free speech and the unfair treatment of working-class protesters by the state.
• “Nobody believes the centrist fantasy” – It is simply no longer believable that a centrist government working closely with civil servants and quangocrats can run the country effectively, says Tom McTague in UnHerd.
• “Navy’s submarines are plagued by ‘gang bangs’ and sick ‘rape lists’” – A whistleblower claims that the Royal Navy’s submarine service is plagued by “gang bangs”, drugs, sordid initiation ceremonies, “rape lists” and lewd officers who share Top Trump-style cards celebrating the worst kinds of debauched behaviour, reports the Mail.
• “‘I woke up to find telecoms workers digging my drive to fit 40ft pole’” – A grandfather claims he woke up to telecoms workers digging up his driveway before they installed an “eyesore” 40ft metal broadband pole outside his house, according to the Mail.
• “How Elon Musk’s Tesla became one of Britain’s fastest growing power companies” – Elon Musk has clashed with Keir Starmer over riots and snubbed investor events, but he could play a pivotal role in Ed Miliband’s ambitious plan to decarbonise the grid by 2030, writes James Titcomb in the Telegraph.
• “Just Stop Oil eco-zealots caught importing T-shirts” – Just Stop Oil has been caught importing T-shirts made by low-paid workers in the Dominican Republic, reports the Mail.
• “Taboos around incest are there for a reason” – When both our biological and moral inheritance tell us so strongly that something is abhorrent, we should heed the warning, says Miriam Cates in the Spectator.
• “Hospitals in South Wales introduce mask-wearing rules amid fears of rising flu cases” – Several hospitals in South Wales have introduced mask-wearing rules amid fears of rising flu cases, reports Sky News.
• “Meet the lockdown generation of dogs abandoned at Battersea” – A few years and a cost-of-living crisis later, many pandemic puppies appear to have outgrown their usefulness, says Matt Rudd in the Sunday Times.
• “‘My rebuttal on the claims that vaccines have saved vs killed’” – On Substack, Steve Kirsch takes apart Israeli entrepreneur Saar Wilf’s pro-vaccine claims.
• “‘Medical Freedom Movement’ circular firing squad” – On Substack, Dr. Robert W. Malone blasts the “Medical Freedom Movement” – a coalition fighting against vaccine mandates and government health policies – for turning on its own.
• “A San Francisco professor is glad to get Covid and wrote about it” – On Substack, Prof. Vinay Prasad shares a UCSF professor’s take on finally getting Covid and the limits of endless precautions and public health advice.
• “The vindication of William Bay” – Dr. William Bay’s epic court win against Australia’s medical regulators is a triumph for free speech, patient rights and the fearless Aussie spirit of standing up to bullies, says HART.
• “Scientific American attacks Jay Bhattacharya for prioritising Americans’ autonomy over ‘the science’” – The prospect of reform at the National Institutes of Health apparently terrifies establishmentarians, writes Joseph MacKinnon for Blaze Media.
• “Holocaust survivor, 83, ‘stabbed to death’ outside her home in Israel” – An 83 year-old Holocaust survivor was stabbed to death by a terrorist outside her nursing home while waiting for her daughter to take her to a medical appointment, reports the Mail.
• “Italy working ‘tirelessly’ to bring home Cecilia Sala detained in Iran” – Italy says it is working “tirelessly” to bring home a 29 year-old journalist who has been under arrest in Iran for more than a week, according to the Telegraph.
• “Have Elon Musk and Die Welt made Germany’s AfD salonfähig?” – By publishing an op-ed by Elon Musk endorsing the AfD, Die Welt has broken a very powerful post-War taboo, writes Katja Hoyer in the Telegraph.
• “Vladimir Putin apologises for Azerbaijan plane crash – but blames Ukraine” – Vladimir Putin has apologised for the Azerbaijan Airlines crash but stopped short of accepting responsibility for what he described as a “tragic incident”, reports the BBC.
• “Secret Assad files show Stasi of Syria put children on trial” – Analysis of Syrian intelligence documents reveals that family members spied on each other, teachers betrayed pupils and ‘traitors’ were tortured and killed, reveals Louise Callaghan in the Sunday Times.
• “Have the Royal Marines gone woke?” – Instead of attacking the Royal Marines for going ‘woke’, critics should target the spineless chain of command and MoD civil servants who enforce DEI with an iron fist, says Andrew Fox in Spiked.
• “Costco is pushing back – hard – against the anti-DEI movement” – Costco is battling an anti-DEI wave with a stern rebuke to activist shareholders looking to end the warehouse retailer’s diversity ambitions, reports CNN.
• “Michael Portillo documentary victim of woke trigger warning as travel doc hit with alert over ‘wine tasting’” – Channel 5’s streaming service My5 has put a trigger warning on Michael Portillo’s travel documentary about Andalucia due to scenes featuring sherry being drunk, says GB News.
• “Mary” – If you were intending to watch Frank Caruso’s Mary over the festive season, prepare yourself for a Christmas turkey like no other, writes Dr. Roger Watson in Country Squire.
• “AI spots heart conditions before sufferers have symptoms” – Artificial intelligence is being used to find people with heart conditions before they even have symptoms, reports Sky News.
• “‘This is one of the more troubing trends that we have seen’” – Martin Kulldorff reminds people of just how zealously CNN pushed the Covid vaccines and says fanatics pushing vaccines is why people no longer trust them.

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