News Round-Up
- “Britain to unleash army of hackers on Putin” – New Cyber and Electromagnetic Command will oversee £1 billion spend to take on hostile states, including Russia, reports the Telegraph.
- “Revealed: how much the highest earners pay towards Britain’s benefits bill” – A third of a worker’s taxes is spent servicing the nation’s welfare bill, says the Telegraph.
- “Electric cars halve in value after just two years” – Heavy discounting and the growing range of cheaper models are being blamed for extraordinary depreciation, according to the Telegraph. Tl;dr don‘t buy an electric car.
- “Teacher set up petition telling pupils to remove head teacher for racism” – Joshua Adusei, a black teacher at the Harris Academy Tottenham (an outsanding school) has told the head of he will “get him out” if he did not resign, reports the Telegraph.
- “Asylum seeker can stay in Britain after having affair” – Immigration tribunal rules that an Iraqi migrant would be at risk of an “honour killing” if he was returned home, says the Telegraph.
- “NHS trust ‘trying to hide cost of trans doctor tribunal’” – A “cynical culture of secrecy” has taken over Fife trust, says Scottish Tory, according to the Telegraph.
- “Kate Nash takes swipe at JK Rowling in new pro-trans single” – An NPC micro-celeb has take a swipe at JKR, claiming the word “girl” is “exclusionary, regressive, misogynist”, says the Telegraph. Yawn.
- “Lineker tells Starmer to halt arms sales to Israel” – The ex-BBC presenter has signed an open letter calling for the British Government to stop selling arms to Israel in his first political intervention since leaving Match of the Day, reports the Telegraph.
- “Netanyahu says second Sinwar ‘eliminated’ – but I fear more fanatics” – The elimination of Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar and up to a dozen of his aides in a precision Israeli air strike has been met with predictable outrage among terrorist sympathisers, says the Mail.
- “China backs Starmer’s Chagos deal” – Beijing has welcomed the Chagos deal in a way not entirely welcomed by our Prime Minister, according to the Telegraph.
- “Why did LBC tick off Robert Jenrick?” – Why did LBC pour scorn on Robert Jenrick, the Shadow Justice Secretary, asks Charlotte Gill on her Substack.
- “Is DOGE Dead?” – The world’s richest man has gone back to “spending 24/7” at his old jobs, but left behind devotees who are accumulating power and influence, reports the Free Press.
- “Pfizer hid data so it would not have to report good results on its mRNA Covid jab and help Donald Trump before the 2020 election” – Alex Berenson on his Substack reports on the latest Covid vaccine outragers.
- “Israel to stop training female combat soldiers over ‘lack of fitness’” – The IDF has ended a pilot scheme after finding the six-month programme was not enough to train up female soldiers, says the Telegraph.
- “BBC ‘damages countryside’ to film Chris Packham’s Springwatch” – Residents of Chris Packham’s village say ditches have been blocked, tracks widened for vehicles and a meadow covered in steel plate just as wildflowers come into bloom – all in the name of saving the planet, according to the Telegraph.
- “Starmer’s legal chief in Nazi jibe at anti-ECHR Tories and Reform” – Starmer’s Attorney General has warned that any Tories rejecting the European Convention on Human Rights are Nazis, which, understandably, has resulted in some pushback from those Tories who want to exit the ECHR, reports the Times.
- “Robert Jenrick confronts Tube fare dodgers” – The Shadow justice Secretary says “lawbreaking is out of control”, accusing Sadiq Khan of “driving London into the ground” as he confronts fare dodgers on the London Underground.
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Robert Jenrick seems like a good prospect for the conservative party, especially if Nigel ends up destroying Reform, as he has done with past projects.
In any case, politicians who can engage meaningfully with the public directly on X – rather than hide behind press releases and statements in Parliament – seem to be the way of the future. It could result in a better form of democracy and perhaps reduce the influence of faceless bureaucrats (“the blob”).
“The state needs to reassert itself”, says Robert Jerrick
What are ULEZ’s? What are obligations to install heat pumps? What are environmental certificates to sell or rent a home? What are electric car mandates? What are obligations forced on us to provide welfare to people who can’t be bothered to work? What are restrictions on praying silently on the street? What are increasing restrictions on our speech and expression? Etc, etc, etc.
I would say, overall, the state needs to assert itself a little less.
Agreed – the state needs to FO and leave people alone as much as possible
Yes, that’s what Rupert Lowe meant, when he said,
“We need a government that will PUT US FIRST,
DEFEND OUR INTERESTS,
and GET THE HELL OUT OF OUR WAY!”
Shameful statistics which will only worsen over the next four years with Labour in charge, but I don’t think everybody arrested subsequently ends up in prison; ”The British economy continues to struggle under PM Keir Starmer, the military is depleted and a pension crisis is on the horizon, but there is one area where the UK is exceeding expectations. Starmer’s UK has achieved levels of political prisoners not only resembling but occasionally even outdoing those of Communist dictatorships like Cuba, Venezuela and even China. Freedom House estimated that Cuba has 2,768 political prisoners, Venezuela has 1,953 political prisoners, and thousands more in China. Starmer’s regime and an enthusiastic police force have easily outdone these backward Communist regimes by arresting over 1,000 people a month for social media posts. The full number of political prisoners in the UK remains unknown, but the high number of arrests suggests that Britain may be able to compete with Cuba. The 12,000 arrests by 37 forces a year are a record high. Speech arrests more than doubled from 5,502 in 2017 to over 12,000 since 2022. increasing by 1,000 or more every year. The internet did not fundamentally change since 2017. The UK authorities however… Read more »
This Austrian MP totally gets it; ”Mass immigration to Europe is an agenda that is organized as, “a consciously controlled ethnic and cultural transformation,” warned Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) leader Herbert Kickl during a speech at CPAC Hungary. “What is happening in Europe is no coincidence. It is the result of an agenda, a consciously controlled ethnic and cultural transformation. Because migration is not being stopped, no, it is being organized, promoted and glorified. NGOs are not noble aid organizations, they are part of smuggling networks with a political and ideological mission,” said Kickl. Kickl’s party, the most popular in Austria and currently polling between 34 and 36 percent, almost came to power during last year’s national elections. Although rival parties shut his party out once again, this does not appear to have deterred Kickl’s messaging on an issue that remains core to his party’s program. “Integration is a lie because it means that the majority should adapt to the minority. And our welfare state is serving less and less those who have taken responsibility for themselves, for their families, for their homeland. It is being turned into an all-inclusive club for people who travel thousands of kilometers to… Read more »
I cannot fault a word from Herbert Kickl. That chap is bang on. Every word.
Wow, what a true patriot that man is! I don’t understand why more Austrians didn’t vote for him and stand up for themselves, instead of laying down like doormats before the Third World Invaders.
It’s as if they’re suffering from “Stockholm Syndrome” or something.
“Robert Jenrick confronts Tube fare dodgers”
Didn’t Jennrick vote along with his government on all the major policies when they were in power? so did Kemi for that matter
I didn’t hear anything of them being lone voices against the Tory agenda at the time!
Funny how loud they shout now when there’s another self important leadership contest on the way
I agree 100% though he still deserves credit for confronting fare dodgers. I have had a few animated discussions with fare dodgers and fare dodger indulging bus drivers over the years. More people should do this. Doesn’t mean he’d make a good PM though – I think more or less the only thing I give Johnson credit for is having confronted some Islington thugs who were harassing a one of his fellow cyclists on his way home I think – harassing cyclists is a pretty common pastime for Islington youth.
“Britain to unleash army of hackers on Putin”
Is that instead of, or in addition to, the army of hackers the government has unleashed on us these last few years?
That, to me at least, sounds paranoid.
Do you have any evidence of this?
You cannot be serious, Monro….
Perhaps Jon is guilty of overusing the word hacker, but I think you know what he means: 77th Brigade
https://www.army.mod.uk/learn-and-explore/about-the-army/formations-divisions-and-brigades/field-army-troops/77th-brigade-information-operations/
They turned their crosshairs onto their own “domestic terrorists” for the last few years.
This website, in a previous incarnation, used to have learned commentators, authorities in their field, who would support their opinions with credible evidence. With one or two exceptions, it has now reverted to a social media sound bite chatter net. The DT looked into the activities that you refer to: ‘Publicly available social media posts were scrutinised for accuracy and challenged if the Government felt information presented to the public was incorrect, inaccurate or deliberately misleading. ‘“These units used publicly available data, including material shared on social media platforms, to assess UK disinformation trends and narratives. “They did not target individuals or take any action that could impact anyone’s ability to discuss and debate issues freely.” During the pandemic however, the Government’s response to harmful online messaging was largely conducted through three separate units brought together for the duration of the national emergency. The Counter Disinformation Unit, a part of DCMS, searched for content deemed harmful to the UK which was then flagged to social media platforms. The Cabinet Office’s Rapid Response Unit, launched in March 2020, was designed to identify and counter social media posts and other commentary from purported experts issuing dangerous misinformation, as well as phishing scams… Read more »
OK maybe no hacking then – unleashed an army of spies is perhaps more accurate.
Or, even more accurately, a few punk young political advisers overstepping the mark within the Cabinet Office.
The individuals within 77 Brigade did the searches in their own time without any approval from their chain of command, egged on by irresponsible and immature halfwits in Downing Street, No 10 at that time being occupied by the biggest halfwit of them all; incapable of supervising a whelk stall.
In their own time sounds like a stretch… sounds more like it was on our time as part of their job, and that’s what concerns people
But what concerns me is that ‘concerned’ people have not even bothered to look at the evidence:
‘They had been told what was legally allowed, such as a ‘scrape’ whereby we searched online platforms for keywords; and what was illegal, such as repeatedly looking at a named UK individual’s account without authorisation, although some people would do that from their own accounts after their shift.’
‘It is true that our counter-disinformation activities were not directed at the UK population’
Oh for heaven’s sake!
Either these organisations should not exist or they should be confined to very specific activities targeted at likely actual enemies that pose us an existential threat – not the flu. They should be far too busy to spy on us, and their bosses should be sacking them if they are caught wasting time on nonsense. But that doesn’t appear to be how it works. I’m happy with “army of spies” and “army of brainwashers/propagandists” for the “nudge units” and their ilk. Get rid of the lot of them.
‘The 77th Brigade is part of the British Army and exists to conduct information operations within the military, with its work spanning from audience analysis to disseminating counter-propaganda. The Brigade has conducted operations against both the Taliban and al-Qaeda.’ ‘General Sir Nick Carter 2020: “The 77th Brigade are not currently supporting in the Cabinet Office with any projects that would involve interactions with British Citizens who might be posting disinformation nor misinformation and any capabilities are not being directed at the UK population. 77th Brigade do not, and have never, conducted any kind of action against British citizens.” Whistleblower: ‘It is true that our counterdisinformation activities were not directed at the UK population….. I do not doubt that the activities I participated in were conceived of for good……..’ ‘When in the midst of his muddled explanation, Eichmann reformulates the categorical imperative such that one ought to act in such a way that the Führer would approve, or would himself so act, Arendt offers a swift rejoinder, as if she were delivering a direct vocal challenge to him: “Kant, to be sure, had never intended to say anything of the sort; on the contrary, to him every man was a legislator the… Read more »
I was just going by the facts you’ve presented.
You said, “With one or two exceptions, [this website] has now reverted to a social media sound bite chatter net.”
That’s rich, coming from The One Trick Pony posting endless propaganda for Zelensky the Weasel. Every…Single…Day.
The phenomenon of rudeness online, especially in social media comments, can be attributed to several psychological and social factors: Anonymity: The internet often allows users to remain anonymous or use pseudonyms. This anonymity can reduce accountability, making individuals more likely to express negative feelings without fear of repercussions. Disinhibition Effect: Online communication can create a sense of disinhibition, where people feel less restrained than they would in face-to-face interactions. This can lead to more extreme expressions of emotions, including anger or frustration. Lack of Nonverbal Cues: Online interactions lack the nonverbal cues present in in-person conversations, such as tone of voice and body language. This can lead to misunderstandings and escalated responses, as people may misinterpret the intent behind written comments. Group Dynamics: Social media platforms often amplify group behavior. If a person sees others being rude or inflammatory, they may feel encouraged to join in, leading to a cycle of negativity. Stress and Frustration: People may project their own frustrations or stress onto others in online spaces. This can result in rude comments as a way to vent or release pent-up emotions. Cognitive Biases: Individuals may develop biases that lead them to perceive others’ opinions as more extreme or… Read more »
Stop whining and get over it.
Some people thrive on attention their entire lives. And when they do not get it, they may go to any extent to get that for themselves.
Some of the underlying factors for such a behavior may be:
Nice one! 🙂
https://meduza.io/en/feature/2025/05/29/there-s-no-such-thing-as-safety Sceptics in a different country: In April 2025, Kommersant journalist Alexander Chernykh declined the most prestigious independent prize recognizing Russian journalism, Redkollegia. He’d won the award for a report from Russia’s Kursk region…..the jury……downplays…..the work of journalists who continue to report from within Russia. Anna ‘My husband’s boss hinted that maybe he’d have to be let go — “because your wife is involved in some questionable stuff.” A friend got drunk with him and said, “They’re saying something might happen to your wife soon.’ ‘…not even a week after I quit, my husband failed a security screening at his new state-affiliated job. Because of me. They just fired him. “Your wife is involved in bad things — why is she writing awful stuff about our country?” And the security service showed him they knew exactly where I’d been, and what I’d done, hour by hour. “Why was she conducting interviews in the park that later appeared in hostile media?” The surveillance is extremely effective. Down to the dates and times. There’s no such thing as safety — not real safety. Only the appearance of it.’ Darya ‘At some point, it stopped making sense to spell out in every article who started the war. … Read more »
“Electric cars halve in value after just two years” You do not have to delve behind the paywall to know that Electric Cars are just a part of the whole agenda to undermine our way of life. The average age of cars on the road in the UK is increasing year by year, around 30% of cars on the road are now over 12 years old. Yes people are hanging on to cars as long as possible but strict MOT rules will slowly but surely remove all these old cars from the road. Used car prices are on the rise, it will not be long before many people will find themselves unable to obtain a replacement when their old banger finally reaches the end of the road. TPTB talk about electric cars as a simple replacement for petrol/diesel cars, they are not. Electric cars will work for some, especially if you are in a position to rent or lease one but for many it will be the end of the road and the end of the travel freedom that we enjoyed with petrol/diesel cars. Just one more example of the insidious agenda to reshape our lives in all respects, mostly… Read more »
TPTB will probably only be happy when we are all living solitary, pointless lives like Vashti in E.M. Forster’s “The Machine Stops”. By the number of phone zombies walking around we’re well on the way.
Just read a piece by Kathleen Stock on Unherd with the title “The flattening of the mind” Screens have turned us into pancakes.
I notice our Gracious Host wrote the notes for the NR today – they are a bit saltier than usual. I get the impression TY is angry as hell and he’s not going to take it any more.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/05/29/britain-to-unleash-army-of-hackers-on-putin-ai/
One billion £ that British taxpayers cannot afford just to play silly buggers.
“Asylum seeker can stay in Britain after having affair”
The Iraqi Muslim illegal is a bold-faced LIAR, because every Muslim man is allowed FOUR WIVES & umpteen children, as long as he can afford to support them all financially, which is a piece of cake on UK welfare benefits, each wife claiming falsely to be a “single mother” to get her own free house and money from the Taxpayers.
Every Muslim man is also allowed UNLIMITED SEX SLAVES, called “WAR CAPTIVES”, into which category Islam places ALL WESTERN FEMALES OF ANY AGE.
So the Iraqi Muslim Scrounger is NOT in any danger at all from “having an affair” with a non-Muslim. SEND THE LYING B*STARD BACK, you charlatans at the immigration office, and stop taking us all for fools.