News Round-Up
- “Linehan arrest is departure from democracy” – Donald Trump’s state department has slammed Graham Linehan’s arrest as a “departure from democracy”, reports the Mail.
- “Graham Linehan accuser ‘is disgraced transgender police officer’” – A trans activist at the centre of the Graham Linehan arrest is a disgraced cop behind scores of gender-based legal challenges, reveals the Sun.
- “The questions the Met must answer over the Graham Linehan debacle” – A senior police officer with a functioning brain cell should have reviewed the Graham Linehan investigation and nipped the fiasco in the bud, says David Spencer in the Spectator.
- “The police are further to the Left than Owen Jones now” – The explosion of speech-related arrests often go well beyond even what our outrageously illiberal laws require, writes Tom Slater in the Telegraph.
- “Labour can’t be trusted to protect free speech” – Returning free speech to Britain will require a sea change in both the law and police culture, and that can only come from the top, says our own Laurie Wastell in the Spectator.
- “Linehan’s arrest was meant to scare you into silence” – The police are not just blindly enforcing the law, writes David Shipley in the Telegraph. The State favours certain ideologies and communities, which it uses its power to defend.
- “Britons can no longer honestly say we live in a free country” – If we want to preserve our right to free expression we need drastic change, says Nick Timothy in the Telegraph.
- “Britain needs a First Amendment” – We need to tear up the current legal framework governing limits on speech and legislate US-style protections, writes Stephen Daisley in the Spectator.
- “Graham Linehan’s arrest exposes Britain’s soft totalitarianism” – If Graham Linehan’s arrest isn’t a bright red line for Britain, what on earth would be? asks Rod Dreher in the Spectator.
- “How Graham Linehan went from comedy star to woke enemy number one” – The lauded Father Ted and IT Crowd creator has become one of the most high-profile victims of cancel culture, writes Liam Kelly in the Telegraph.
- “‘Unacceptable’ Lib Dems suspend councillor who posted threatening pro-trans graphic” – The Liberal Democrats have suspended a party councillor who posted a graphic featuring a Terf-killer branding a gun on social media the day Graham Linehan was arrested, reports the Express.
- “The victims of Britain’s free speech crackdown” – The Telegraph has compiled a lengthy list of people whose free speech rights have been violated.
- “Keir Starmer faces calls to scrap Islamophobia definition” – Jonathan Hall KC, the Government’s top terror-law adviser, has warned Sir Keir Starmer against defining Islamophobia because of the risks to free speech, according to the Parliament Politics.
- “Speaking the truth should never make you a criminal” – The test of any government is whether it will defend the people who play by the rules, or whether it will indulge the bullies and the bureaucrats, writes Kemi Badenoch in the Mail.
- “Asylum seekers should be detained in camps” – In the Spectator, Robert Jenrick tells Tim Shipman and Ignacio Ledesma he wants mass deportations and asylum seekers held in prison-style camps.
- “Migrant hotel protests make me ‘ashamed to be British’” – Ellie Goulding says that anti-migrant protesters amassing outside migrant hotels make her “embarrassed to be British”, accusing them of “using immigration as an excuse to be appalling”, according to the Mail.
- “Only acceptable time to fly England flag is World Cup” – Singer Lily Allen has joined Ellie Goulding in hitting out at protesting Brits by claiming the “only acceptable” time to fly English flags is during football tournaments, reports the Mail.
- “Tesco introduces ‘prison like’ security scanners to prevent stealing” – Tesco has rolled out new “Heathrow level” security scanners to try to combat the scourge of shoplifters in a measure some have branded “dystopian” and “prison-like”, according to the Mail.
- “Can anyone save Britain from self-destruction?” – In the Spectator, Douglas Murray warns that Britain is sleepwalking into cultural suicide, wrecked by mass immigration, government spin and denial.
- “The Rayner scandal has lost Starmer the next election” – After promising to lead a party that upholds the highest standards of integrity, the Prime Minister must realise his project is now ruined, says Tom Harris in the Telegraph.
- “TaxPayers’ Alliance invite Rayner to join anti-stamp duty campaign” – The Spectator’s Steerpike reports that Angela Rayner’s stamp duty slip-up has earned her an unlikely ally: the TaxPayers’ Alliance.
- “Nadine Dorries defects to Reform on eve of party conference” – According to the Standard, Nadine Dorries has become the latest high-profile Conservative to defect to Reform UK, declaring: “The Tory Party is dead.”
- “Over 30,000 homes fitted with botched insulation Government admits” – Over 30,000 homes have been fitted with faulty insulation under a government-backed scheme to cut energy bills, reports the Sun.
- “Lloyd’s of London reverses Net Zero ban” – The new boss of Lloyd’s of London has scrapped the insurance market’s Net Zero policies amid a backlash led by Trump against pro-green financing, says the Telegraph.
- “Britain’s biggest wind farm operator sues US after Trump blocks project” – Britain’s biggest wind farm operator is suing the US Government after Donald Trump blocked its plans for a major project off the coast of New England, according to the Hill.
- “Labour loses union rank and file” – On Net Zero Watch, a retired trade unionist reports that Labour is losing support among grassroots union members, with many at a Unite demo ready to back Reform if the Lindsey Oil refinery closes.
- “Green panties in a bunch” – The fit about the DoE climate report is a glorious spectacle of projection, says Irina Slav on her Substack.
- “America’s superhighway to the future” – In TEA, Gary Abernathy argues that natural gas isn’t a temporary “bridge” to a renewable future but the essential, reliable energy superhighway powering the 21st Century.
- “Guardian admits it did not check before publishing article commemorating ‘journalist’ accused of holding hostages” – The Guardian admits it failed to check its facts before publishing a Gaza tribute featuring an alleged Hamas operative who held three Israeli hostages for eight months, reports the Jewish Chronicle.
- “Paramount in talks to buy Bari Weiss’ Free Press for up to $200 million, give her senior editorial role at CBS News” – Paramount is preparing to shell out as much as $200 million for the Free Press – and hand her the keys to CBS News, says the NY Post.
- “The truth about the trans school shooter” – In the Spectator, Lionel Shriver excoriates the media for referring to the trans school shooter in Minneapolis as “she”.
- “Pride parade organiser investigated over alleged misuse of funds” – The chief executive of Pride in London is on “leave of absence” over allegations of harassment, bullying and financial wrongdoing, reports the Standard.
- “The sinister tactics of Hope Not Hate” – Hope Not Hate has repeatedly been involved in the use of strong-arm tactics to silence democratic dissent, writes John Power in the Spectator.
- “Leave the countryside alone” – In the Spectator, Rod Liddle ridicules claims that the countryside is “too white”, blasting calls for halal outlets and prayer rooms as proof Britain’s majority culture is being sidelined.
- “Nick Clegg’s new book – cringeworthy, derivative and ill-informed” – Nick Clegg’s book serves up one undercooked, bland thought after another, says Yuan Yi Zhu in the Times.
- “How many homes can Rayner buy??” – On X, Angela Rayner’s stamp duty misstep inspires an AI-generated musical tribute.
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I’m going to go on a slight zag with the Linehan story.
If it’s now against the law to be offensive towards “protected minorities” then the police are only doing their job.
What we cannot do as a society is sit back and watch elected politicians make terrible, grotesque laws and then start getting angry when they are put into practice. That’s too late.
If we’re too complacent and/or too incapable of stopping the creation of stupid, destructive laws, well then, tough. We’ve made a rod for our backs and now we live with it.
I have no love for the police. Many are no doubt fine, but many are thugs and bullies, which is even more reason not to hand them new idiotic laws which they can use to go out and bully us even more.
You can drive a bus through the phrasing of the legislation. No doubt it started out as well intended, but typically kak-handed implementation. Everything causes ‘alarm and distress’ or is ‘grossly offensive’ if the ‘victim’ screams loudly enough.
Another massive question for me is how Tweets written by an Irish man, while he’s living in Texas have anything to do with the UK police.
I have a slightly more jaundiced view… I believe all legislation is deliberately written with a view to making work for lawyers to get lots of money interpreting the minutiae.
The marked decline of the police in 2012 was the removal of the ‘hard men’ in favour of the university graduate.
I largely agree. I would argue it has been “against the law to be offensive towards protected minorities” since at least 1965:
“The Race Relations Act 1965 was the first piece of legislation in the UK to address the prohibition of racial discrimination and followed previously unsuccessful bills. The Act banned racial discrimination in public places and made the promotion of hatred on the grounds of ‘colour, race, or ethnic or national origins’ an offence.”
Why protected minorities? We are all of one race or another, race encompasses all of us not just a minority in any given society
In practice that law and the ones that followed appear in general to only operate in favour of specific groups that the current political agenda seems to favour, white Englishmen being at the bottom of the pecking order.
Thats true, in these modern times ,race is racist dependent on your race!
You just couldn’t make this up
I suggest you zig back to the straight and narrow. It is just laziness from the police to avoid doing difficult things like catching the wrong-uns in the style of Jack Regan.
Thursday Morning Arborfield
Well, the forces of globalism might have the money and the ‘levers of power’, but their ideology is running aground very fast on the rocks of reality. Three years ago, I was fearing the worst, that we were heading for a multigenerational communist state. Now I just wait for the day, which will come soon, when these seditionists can be swept away. Everything they touch turns to crap. They have no idea when to stop, when to say, ‘this is enough’, and that will be their end.
“Migrant hotel protests make me ‘ashamed to be British’”
People like Ellie Goulding and Lily Allen have always been ‘ashamed to be British’ despite living comfortable lives in a wonderful place. I am ashamed of them, and all their kind that they haven’t got an ounce of gratitude for the sacrifices of our forebears who toiled in fields, in mills, in front of furnaces and down holes in the ground, that has made this country what it is, and can be again once.
Personally I think Lily Allen has plenty to be ashamed of but being British is not one of those things,
Lily Allen said she can’t remember how many abortions she’s had – doesn’t seem like the kind of person to be lecturing about morals.
https://medicine.yale.edu/news-article/russias-systematic-program-of-coerced-adoption-and-fostering-of-ukraines-children/ Republican Senator Chuck Grassley is demanding that the return of thousands of kidnapped children abducted by Russia be a non-negotiable condition for any peace agreement. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine includes a systematic campaign of forcibly moving children from Ukraine into Russia, fracturing their connection to Ukrainian language and heritage through “re-education,” and even disconnecting children from their Ukrainian identities through adoption. Children documented by the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) range in age from four months to 17 years, and many have families looking for them in Ukraine. Keep this investigation going and donate by selecting “Other” and entering “HRL.” More than 19,000 children from Ukraine have been deported to Russia. Only 1,236 children have been returned to Ukraine. The actual number of children remaining in Russia is likely significantly higher. Yale HRL has identified more than 8,400 children from Ukraine who have been systematically relocated to at least 57 facilities––including 13 facilities in Belarus and 43 facilities in Russia and Russia-occupied territory. Russia targeted vulnerable groups of children for deportation, including orphans, children with disabilities, children from low-income families, and children with parents in the military. There are documented cases in which children were physically abused, denied communication with their families in Ukraine, and… Read more »
Or alternatively you can act rationally and stop believing every bit of propaganda you hear.
‘The Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicates that, as part of the new stage of the humanitarian mission, 11 children have been reunited with their relatives in Ukraine, and 3 children have returned to their relatives in Russia, bringing the total number of children reunited with their families since the commencement of Qatar’s mediation efforts to 100 children’
Qatar Foreign Affairs Ministry July 2025
‘Since July 2023, Qatar has helped facilitate the return of dozens of Ukrainian children taken to Russia and occupied territories.’
Moscow Times June 2025
I am glad that these children could be reunited with their families after being abandoned by the Ukrainian authorities. Clearly Russia taking its responsibilities to the kids seriously, and not insisting that they become Russian citizens in the way that people have alleged.
‘About Defendant
Born on 7 October 1952, President of the Russian Federation.
Accused LastName
Vladimirovich Putin
Accused FirstName
Vladimir
Charges
Allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation (under articles 8(2)(a)(vii) and 8(2)(b)(viii) of the Rome Statute). The crimes were allegedly committed in Ukrainian occupied territory at least from 24 February 2022. There are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Putin bears individual criminal responsibility for the aforementioned crimes, (i) for having committed the acts directly, jointly with others and/or through others (article 25(3)(a) of the Rome Statute), and (ii) for his failure to exercise control properly over civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts, or allowed for their commission, and who were under his effective authority and control, pursuant to superior responsibility (article 28(b) of the Rome Statute).’
“The truth about the trans school shooter”
Mike Graham, on Talk Radio, was refreshingly blunt about this when talking to some wet liberal in America, who was clearly aghast that anyone might insist on the truth…
Labour can’t be trusted
to protect free speechTories can’t be trusted
to protect free speech“Lib Dems suspend councillor who posted threatening pro-trans graphic”
Lib who?
Islamophobia doesn’t need defining. The word itself says it all. An an overwhelming and uncontrollable fear of Islam.
Phobias are a type of anxiety disorder that can be successfully treated with various therapies and support. Telling people that it is proscribed is not a therapy.
I’m arachnophobic, but I don’t hate spiders! Your 100% correct, it’s a fear, not a hatred!
The Spiders from Mars Party is consulting on a new definition of arachnophobia before proposing legislation to criminalise washing them down the plughole.
This year many are too big to fit.
Wish I could unread that!
I’m going to be in trouble then…..
Spider ladders are available so that they can escape the dreaded plughole demise https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/195864807515#:~:text=The%20SpiderLadder%20(c)%202023.,or%20having%20to%20find%20Help.
“The test of any government is whether it will defend the people who play by the rules, or whether it will indulge the bullies and the bureaucrats, writes Kemi Badenoch in the Mail.”
Brava 👏..and after 14 years in power, you did what exactly ??
“Asylum seekers should be detained in camps- Robert Jenrick”
Another former passively quite tory!
Ignore the last 14 years, let’s throw them out(suddenly), throw them in jail(suddenly), deport them on mass(suddenly)! I no longer back Rishi Sunak (suddenly)
Go f@uk yourself Jen boy, it’s to late!
“Tesco introduces ‘prison like’ security scanners to prevent stealing”
Thats fine for stopping law abiding citizens from shop lifting! Non law abiding citizens, still walk out with the swag! Who’s going to physically stop them? and if someone does physically stop them, why didn’t they just use security staff in the first place?
A lot of security staff probably don’t feel they are paid enough to get into it with people who look “mad enough” – and who can blame them? The staff probably get told not to risk themselves anyway – health & safety, insurance etc.
Correct, so what’s the point of detecting theft if your not going to do anything about it anyway?
Maybe it puts off some of the less determined shoplifters or pushes them to go to places with zero security measures. Otherwise it’s possibly just for appearances or to be able to tell your insurers you have measures in place (assuming they might insure themselves against theft – perhaps they don’t).
Given how prolific it is, I’d be surprised if they were able to find an insurer to cover the risk, let alone one that might pay out?
Probably only covered for some major incident like robbing all the tills or someone coming with a lorry and emptying the store.
To enable the registration of a crime number for company audit?
Another useful exercise, not!
“Migrant hotel protests make me ‘ashamed to be British”
Good! Then you and your mate ‘multi abortion lily’ go and live in Gaza, you ungrateful trollops!
“Labour loses union rank and file”
message to all the lifetime Labour voters
WAKE UP!
“Nick Clegg” ….who?
It is not just the American trans school shooter. The media are also usng Linehan’s accuser, the disgraced copper, his self-declared pronouns.
A disgrace amplified!
““The Rayner scandal has lost Starmer the next election” – After promising to lead a party that upholds the highest standards of integrity, the Prime Minister must realise his project is now ruined, says Tom Harris in the Telegraph”
Starmer did that on his own, after Southport.
“Asylum seekers should be detained in camps”
… in the Freezing Falklands, with the loyal Falkies paid £millions to guard them, instead of paying £millions for Corrupt Kagame to trouser in Rwanda.
Is it true that the Reform UK Party now uses “Hope Not Hate” activists to vet Reform candidates?