News Round-Up

• “Pro-free speech Vice-Chancellor reinstated and cleared of all wrongdoing” – James Tooley, the pro-free speech Vice-Chancellor of Buckingham, has been exonerated by a gruelling, months-long investigation into vexatious allegations made by his ex-wife and will shortly be reinstated, says the Telegraph.
• “Labour backbenchers rebel over blocked WASPI women compensation scheme” – Ten Labour backbenchers have thrown their support behind a new law that would give compensation to WASPI women in a clear show of defiance against Sir Keir Starmer, reports the Mail.
• “Trump’s Secretary of State challenges David Lammy over Chagos deal” – Marco Rubio has challenged David Lammy over Britain’s deal to give away the Chagos Islands in their first call together, reveals the Telegraph.
• “FBI ‘handed dossier’ on Lord Mandelson’s alleged China links” – A dossier detailing Lord Mandelson’s links to China has reportedly been handed to the FBI and could further complicate his chances of being accepted as British Ambassador to the U.S., reports the Telegraph.
• “MP who threatened to ‘smash’ a journalist’s face is new trade envoy” – Keir Starmer’s latest trade envoy team includes Labour’s Kate Osamor, who once threatened a journalist with a bat, and Bell Ribeiro-Addy, who chairs a group advocating for reparations for the descendants of slaves, says the Mail.
• “New Schools Network revived to fight academies reform” – According to Schools Week, the New Schools Network has been revived as a lobbying operation with a new director tasked with defending successive governments’ successful education reforms.
• “Shhh! Don’t tell anyone but the House is full of extremists” – Even asking about extremism is itself an act of extremism, according to some of the more extreme backbenchers, says Tim Stanley in the Telegraph.
• “Outraged by grooming gangs? You’re an extremist” – The British state would rather label everyone far Right than focus on the real threats in our midst, writes Tom Slater in Spiked.
• “We’re all ‘extremists’ now” – On Substack, Matt Goodwin explains how the British state plans to use Southport and the Rape Gangs to suppress free speech and label millions of ordinary people Right-wing extremists.
• “The propaganda unit behind Labour’s extremism report” – The Government’s Research, Information and Communications Unit was set up with the aim of providing “consistently clear and appropriate communications”. But despite its name, Ricu is anything but transparent, says Natasha Leake in the Telegraph.
• “Child rape and a judge inclined to leniency” – In TCW, Mat Brown highlights Robert Jenrick’s outrage over lenient sentencing for child rapists.
• “The case for execution” – Axel Rudakubana deserves the death penalty, says Sam Bidwell in the Critic.
• “‘Trump’s done 100 things in one day and Starmer still hasn’t done anything. We need a Trump’” – In the Telegraph, Ed Shackle reacts to a poll revealing that many British voters back Donald Trump’s agenda on issues like migration and free speech.
• “Rachel Reeves is Gordon Brown in a dress” – Progressives have seemingly lost all hope in the future; they’ve become nostalgic regressives, far too wedded to the old ways, says Despotic Inroad in UnHerd.
• “The cash crisis crippling the Tories – and supercharging Reform” – As Conservative cash supplies run low, a raft of Tory donors appear to have already decided to redirect their money into Reform’s coffers, notes Abigail Buchanan in the Telegraph.
• “The unrelenting 50-year Heathrow saga is a symbol of ‘can’t do’ Britain” – We used to be supremely good at big projects – look at the Victorians’ successes, says Philip Johnston in the Telegraph. Now we are uniquely bad.
• “The councils with up to £3.4 billion debts” – U.K. councils are wilting under a mountain of debt, with the 20 most indebted councils owing more than £30 billion, reports the Mail.
• “U.K. population to hit 72.5 million by 2032 – almost entirely due to migration” – The U.K. population is set to hit 72.5 million by mid-2032 – overtaking France – entirely due to net immigration, says the Mail.
• “Migrants must be expected to integrate” – By the 1980s, Britain had become a civilised country – now some of those hard won advances are eroding, warns Annabel Denham in the Telegraph.
• “‘Diversity is our strength’: the cult of the True Believers” – In TCW, Laura Perrins exposes how the elite’s unwavering belief in diversity blinds them to the violence it fuels.
• “‘This rape gang proves that my politics are correct’” – In the Critic, Ben Sixsmith slams Left-wing commentators for politicising a recent horrific Scottish child sex abuse case, using it as a tool to attack their political opponents rather than focusing on the victims.
• “‘Wipe criminal records of young rioters’” – Children’s commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza argues that the crimes committed by children involved in last summer’s riots are not serious enough to go on their permanent criminal records, according to the Times.
• “Amir Khan reveals gunpoint robbery left him too scared to say in U.K.” – Boxer Amir Khan has revealed he fled to Dubai following a terrifying gunpoint robbery in 2022 which left him feeling too scared to stay in Britain, reports the Mail.
• “Ed Miliband’s Net Zero plans branded ‘fantasy’ in damning letter from top scientist” – A former Government scientist has written to Ed Miliband after branding the U.K.’s Net Zero plans an engineering “fantasy” with the challenges and costs massively underestimated, according to GB News.
• “Labour-backing green tycoon poised for £25 million payday from oil-rich UAE” – Labour donor Dale Vince is in line for a £25 million windfall after a British green energy supplier was snapped up by a company backed by the United Arab Emirates, reports the Telegraph.
• “CPS ‘refusing to hand over new evidence’ in Letby case, MPs told” – Sir David Davis says that new medical evidence in the Lucy Letby case is being withheld from her legal team, according to Telegraph.
• “MPs warned over listing illnesses that would apply for assisted dying” – England’s Chief Medical Officer has warned MPs that it would be “extremely difficult” to list illnesses that would apply under new assisted dying laws, reports the Mail.
• “As Sir Chris gazed, the misery of lockdown came back” – In the Mail, Quentin Letts reports on Sir Chris Whitty’s push for a “clear and simple” assisted dying law.
• “Chris Whitty calls for simple assisted dying rules – but his evidence could not be more complicated” – The Chief Medical Officer’s appearance before MPs scrutinising the assisted dying bill showed how tangled medical law can be, says Gordon Rayner in the Telegraph.
• “The truth about Covid vaccines may finally be coming to light” – In the Telegraph, Katie Musgrave calls out former Deputy Chief Medical Officer Prof. Van-Tam for glossing over the lack of informed consent in the U.K.’s vaccine push.
• “The road to serfdom” – On the TTE Substack, Dr. Tom Jefferson and Prof. Carl Heneghan slam the MHRA’s failure, suggesting Dame June Raine’s cluelessness is more likely to blame than Big Pharma’s dishonesty.
• “GMB host criticised for not mentioning Jews as being Holocaust victims” – Campaigners have criticised Good Morning Britain host Ranvir Singh for failing to mention that the Jews were the victims of the Holocaust, reports the Mail.
• “Ireland’s President has shamed his nation” – Ireland is now seen as the most antisemitic country in the EU, says Ruth Dudley Edwards in the Telegraph.
• “Macron’s approval rating sinks to lowest point after disastrous TikTok video” – Emmanuel Macron’s approval ratings have plunged to their lowest since he took office in 2017 after his latest attempt to reconnect with ordinary citizens humiliatingly backfired, reports the Telegraph.
• “Francis Fukuyama on Trump 2.0” – On the Persuasion Substack, Yascha Mounk talks to Francis Fukuyama about the first few days of the Trump administration – and what it means for domestic and foreign policy.
• “Netflix viewers who don’t watch BBC could pay licence fee for it” – A new TV tax could result in subscribers to streaming services having to help bear the cost of the BBC when its charter runs out in December 2027, reports the Mail.
• “Democracy will die ‘at the hands of Silicon Valley’ if AI is not properly regulated, ministers warned” – Peers have voted down proposals to weaken copyright laws over fears tech firms would be given permission to steal from the creative industries, says the Telegraph.
• “Teens half as likely to say they are atheists” – A new poll shows that teenagers and those in their early twenties are half as likely to identify as atheists than their parents, according to the Mail.
• “Bishop of Liverpool is accused of sexual assaults” – The Church of England is facing a new crisis after it emerged two women have made allegations of a sexual nature against the Bishop of Liverpool, reports the Mail.
• “Hate crimes against LGBT victims to receive longer sentences” – Offenders convicted of hate crimes against LGBT and disabled people will face longer sentences under plans by the Home Office, reports the Telegraph.
• “Second teenage footballer banned for asking if transgender opponents were men” – A second teenage footballer has been handed a six-match ban for asking whether the adult transgender opponents she was playing against were men, says the Telegraph. (Spoiler alert: they were.)
• “Trump declares transgender soldiers unfit for U.S. military” – President Trump has signed an executive order banning the use of “invented” pronouns in the U.S. military to rid it of what he called “transgender ideology”, reports the Times.
• “Queensland Government halts hormone treatment for new trans patients under 18” – The Queensland Government has announced a review into the evidence for stage one and two hormone therapies for children with gender dysphoria, according to ABC News.
• “Police officer guilty for calling black colleagues ‘cotton pickers’” – PC Mia Korell has been found guilty of gross misconduct for calling black colleagues “cotton pickers” after they disagreed with claims that the Territorial Support Group was racist, reports the Mail.
• “‘I’ve been banned from Tesco because I refuse to use self checkouts’” – A woman says she was banned from a Tesco Express in Brighton after she refused to use the self-service checkouts because they are “too difficult to use”, according to the Mail.
• “Plus size female rapper sues Lyft ‘after she was too big for car’” – Enormously fat American rapper Dank Demoss has sued Lyft after claiming a driver refused to pick her up over fears she was too big to fit in his car and could “burst his tyres”, reports the Mail. 
• “Congratulations Nigel and Toby!” – On X, Emma Trimble congratulates Prof. Nigel Biggar and (her former boss) Toby on their very well deserved peerages. There is hope for the country yet!

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