News Round-Up

• “Defence Secretary failed to pay council tax on second home” – The Defence Secretary failed to pay second home council tax on his Westminster flat, reports the Telegraph.
• “Covid Inquiry doubles down on myths that justified lockdowns” – The Covid Inquiry’s Module 2 report, published today, weighs in at a hefty 800 pages. It concludes — rather predictably — that we should have locked down earlier and harder. Wrong, but hardly surprising, writers David Paton in UnHerd.
• “Covid inquiry a £200m ‘I told you so’” – The Covid inquiry has been branded a £200m waste of money after concluding that lockdowns could have been “avoided entirely”, according to the Telegraph.
• “Give me back my two years lost to Covid lockdowns” – Time spent in fear, confusion and constraint has fundamentally altered who we are, writes Camilla Tominey in the Telegraph.
• “Lord Gove questions 23,000 Covid deaths claim” – Lord Gove has questioned claims from the Covid-19 Inquiry that up to 23,000 lives could have been saved if Britain had entered lockdown a week earlier, reports the Telegraph.
• “Why are we still relying on flawed Covid models?” – “If I hoped one positive thing would come out of the pandemic, it would have been an end to the blinkered reliance on flawed modelling to inform public policy,” writes Sarah Knapton in the Telegraph.
• “Bombshell Rasmussen survey released” – According to a Rasmussen survey, 36% of Americans who received the COVID-19 jab experienced side effects.
• “Has Shabana Mahmood fixed the Boriswave?” – In the Spectator, David Shipley casts a cynical eye over the Home Secretary’s plans to fix Britain’s migration problem.
• “I fear the migration crisis will trigger a breakdown in race relations” – In her uncompromising new proposals on dealing with Britain’s mass-migration crisis, Shabana Mahmood has been accused this week of “stoking division” in the House of Commons. In the Mail, Rakib Ehsan disagrees.
• “Labour considers softening penalties for work-shy benefit claimants” – Labour is considering softening penalties for benefit claimants who routinely fail to show up to the job centre, reports the Telegraph.
• “Starmer undermines Khan with call for London grooming gangs inquiry” – Sir Keir Starmer has said the national grooming gangs inquiry should examine cases in London in an apparent rebuke to Sir Sadiq Khan, says the Telegraph.
• “Sadiq Khan’s Oxford Street plan ‘will fuel shoplifting and mugging’” – Sir Sadiq Khan’s bid to pedestrianise Oxford Street will turn the thoroughfare into a haven for shoplifters, muggers and criminal gangs, local residents have warned, according to the Telegraph.
• “We don’t need white saviours to rescue us from St George’s flags” – Being compassionate in a patronising fashion from afar is mandatory behaviour for white liberals and our aloof, elite classes, writes Patrick West in the Spectator.
• “Ethnic minorities ‘now view England flag as a racist symbol’” – Ethnic minorities now view the England flag as a racist symbol, a poll has found, reports the Telegraph.
• “Reeves hit with £10 billion borrowing blow days before Budget” – Higher public spending and debt interest payments have blown a £10 billion hole in Rachel Reeves’s Budget plans, says the Telegraph.
• “Labour’s Yorkshire strongholds are collapsing: the party has no future” – Labour may soon be no more than a metropolitan fringe movement that can only govern in a Left-wing coalition, writes Sherelle Jacobs in the Telegraph.
• “BBC loses £1.1 billion as millions of homes refuse to pay licence fee” – The BBC lost more £1.1 billion last year as a one in eight households refused to pay the licence fee. While 3.6 million households simply said they did not want to use the BBC’s services, according to the Mail.
• “The ‘noble lies’ of the BBC” – The media class does not trust the public to hear the unvarnished truth, writes Patrick West in Spiked.
• “The full Trump deal shows all is not lost for Ukraine” – The US has presented its 28-point peace plan to the Ukrainians, and reportedly warned Zelensky he has until Thursday to accept or it will cut off supplies of intelligence, reports the Telegraph.
• “Trump’s ‘capitulation’ peace plan sparks astonishment in Ukraine” – Ukraine woke up on Friday to a U.S. proposal that would force it to essentially capitulate to Russia after almost four years of war, requiring Kyiv to give up land, cut its army and hold elections, according to the Mail.
• “Trump and Mamdani emerge as 2025’s most unlikely double act” – President and New York mayor-elect discover common ground in Oval Office meeting, says the Telegraph.
• “Wall Street billionaires plot to cripple Mamdani over dinner at White House” – Wall Street billionaires proposed backing a Republican for New York governor over dinner at the White House in order to scupper the socialist agenda of Zohran Mamdani, reports the Telegraph.
• “Knitters at war with Royal Mail over solar-powered postboxes” – A village renowned for its knitting “graffiti” has been forced to retire its postbox decorations because the Royal Mail is introducing a high-tech replacement box, says the Telegraph.
• “New study shows deep oceans cooler today than in 4.5 million years” – Deep ocean data show today’s temperatures aren’t record-breaking, debunking claims of unprecedented human-driven warming, according to Climate Change Dispatch.
• “After decades of failed predictions, ABC News pushes latest climate panic” – ABC News warns that toxic waste sites could be flooded, but Americans remain skeptical after decades of failed climate predictions, says Climate Change Dispatch.
• “Dissecting Scotland’s economy-wrecking Net Zero plans” – On his Substack, Joel Smalley resonds to ‘Scotland’s Draft Climate Change Plan: 2026–2040’.
• “How Trump’s DOE just nuked Biden’s climate bureaucracy into oblivion” – Trump’s new Energy Secretary has slashed Biden’s climate bureaucracy, restored oil reserves, and pushed affordable, reliable energy for America, reports Climate Change Dispatch.
• “COP30 doomsayers warn: world may now get colder, not hotter” – Nordic delegates at COP30 have claimed the Atlantic conveyor belt could collapse, threatening a mini ice age, says Climate Change Dispatch.
• “What is Happening in AR7?” – On his Substack, David Turver gives us the latest on Allocation Round 7.
• “The West can still win the electric car war with China” – China’s quest for world domination of electric vehicles (EV) and batteries is starting to falter, writes the ever optimistic Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in the Telegraph.
• “Another MP quits Corbyn’s party after trans rights row” – A second MP has quit Jeremy Corbyn’s Your Party days before its first conference, reports the Telegraph.
• “We have forgotten what a classical liberal education is. It may be too late to revive” – Our civilisation has failed in Johnsonian nurture, becoming more knowing but less knowledgeable, writes Charles Moore in the Telegraph.
• “Nathan Gill, Reform’s ex-leader in Wales, jailed for Russian bribes” – The former leader of Reform UK in Wales has been jailed for more than 10 years for corruption, says the Telegraph.
• “Chris Packham must keep his hands off Britain’s Boxing Day hunts” – Boxing Day hunts allow country folk to shake off the festive fog, writes William Sitwell in the Telegraph. Those who don’t approve are class warriors who peddle false narratives.
• “You haven’t ended the chaos – you are the chaos” – Watch Beth Rigby destroy Sir Keir Starmer on Sky News.

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