News Round-Up

• “Budget ‘to revalue council tax for 2.4 million’ to fund £15 billion benefits boost” – Rachel Reeves is set to batter ordinary workers and the South East in the Budget, while pumping up benefits by £15 billion a year, reports the Mail.
• “Starmer and Lammy to avoid ‘mansion tax’ after Treasury softens rules” – Sir Keir Starmer and David Lammy are poised to escape Labour’s mansion tax after the Treasury raised the threshold on the value of homes to be hit with the new levy, says the Telegraph.
• “As she prepares £15 billion splurge, Reeves to slash the annual cash Isa” – In a major blow to millions of hard-working savers, the Chancellor will significantly cut the annual £20,000 cash Isa tax-free allowance to £12,000, reports the Mail. 
• “Rachel Reeves’s zeitgeist heist lies” – The Left are going to open Pandora’s Box with wealth taxes on working families, warns Isabel Paterson on her Substack.
• “Peter Kyle has just given Rachel Reeves’s game away” – Business Secretary Peter Kyle has finally admitted what everyone else already knew: Keir Starmer is winning his war on private wealth, with Labour’s tax raids driving the wealthy and the high income overseas, says Sam Ashworth-Hayes in the Telegraph.
• “Now even one of Starmer’s whips wants to oust the PM” – One of Labour‘s whips is widely understood within Westminster to be considering resigning to stand as a “stalking horse” candidate against the Prime Minister, reports Andrew Pierce in the Mail.
• “Kemi refuses to apologise after Tory likens Reform badge to Nazi medal” – Kemi Badenoch has refused to apologise to Reform after one of her top shadow ministers likened one of Nigel Farage’s latest merchandise ideas to a Nazi party medal, says the Mail.
• “Comparing Reform to the Nazis is no joke” – Hollinrake’s gaffe is a measure of just how worried the Tories are about the rise of Reform, writes Nigel Jones in the Spectator.
• “Home Office to house more migrants in Epping” – Epping Council has accused Sir Keir Starmer of “crass insensitivity” over plans to house more asylum seekers in the area, reports the Telegraph.
• “Parent fury as asylum seekers given English lessons at primary school with children around” – ​Parents have protested outside a primary school against English lessons for asylum seekers during class times, says the Express.
• “Anti-migrant protesters urged to stop paying council tax” – Demonstrators in Crowborough have been encouraged to withhold their council tax payments to protest against the Government’s proposals to accommodate almost 600 male asylum seekers at a local military barracks, reports GB News.
• “Why Tommy Robinson supporters are turning to Christianity” – The Church of England is grappling with what to do about followers of Tommy Robinson embracing faith, writes the BBC’s Aleem Maqbool.
• “Islamist terror suspect seeks asylum in Britain” – A suspected Islamist terrorist questioned over bombings that killed 269 people in Sri Lanka is seeking asylum in the UK, according to the Express.
• “Britain doesn’t need new blasphemy laws” – It should not be lawful to burn a Quran, but that doesn’t mean Hamit Coskun should be prosecuted for causing a Muslim harassment, alarm or distress, argues Melanie Philips in the Times.
• “Union flag exhibition cancelled for fear of causing offence” – An “anti-racist Union Jack” exhibition has been scrapped because it might offend minority groups, reports GB News.
• “Rapper attacked petrol station with ‘flamethrower’ warning ‘I’m a terrorist’” – A notorious Birmingham rapper attacked a petrol station worker with a makeshift flamethrower and shouted, “I’m a terrorist, I will kill you,” in a row over cigarettes, says the Express.
• “Britain’s asylum crackdown is making Ireland panic” – The Irish Government admits that close to 90% of asylum seekers in the country have arrived via the UK, according to Liz Walsh in the Spectator.
• “The Turkish barbershops hiding a vast criminal network” – In the Telegraph, Danny Shaw lifts the lid on Turkish-style barbershops doubling as cash laundries and exploitation hubs.
• “The benefits toy scheme costing taxpayers £321 million-a-year” – The cost of a benefits scheme providing smartwatches, wobble boards and fidget spinners to people with self-diagnosed mental health conditions has surged by more than a fifth in a year, reports the Mail.
• “Whitehall delegates to AI bots like Humphrey” – The dream of artificial intelligence being a productivity ‘game changer’ is now in doubt, says James Titcomb in the Telegraph.
• “Essays on free speech given trigger warnings” – The University of Essex has put content alerts on five texts that discuss free expression and its potential limits, according to the Telegraph.
• “The power companies cashing in on Miliband’s Net Zero blitz” – Surging energy costs may be blighting many British companies, but for the monopolies feeding electricity around the nation’s power grids, business has never been better, says Jonathan Leake in the Telegraph.
• “Humiliation for Ed Miliband as ‘tiny’ number of Brits switching to heat pumps revealed” – ​Fewer than 100,000 heat pumps were installed last year, meaning the UK is now operating at one-sixth of the required pace, reports the Express.
• “Environmental regulations are killing nuclear power” – Environmental rules are driving nuclear power costs through the roof, with Hinkley Point C spending £700 million to save about a hundred fish over 25 years, says Sam Dumitriu in the Spectator.
• “Coutinho: Net Zero is perverse” – Steerpike reports on yesterday’s Spectator’s Energy Summit.
• “Greta Thunberg banned from Venice after dumping green dye into canal” – Greta Thunberg has been banned from Venice after dumping green dye in the Grand Canal in a stunt alongside Extinction Rebellion activists, according to the Mail.
• “NPR’s climate ‘tipping points’ advocacy – three claims, zero evidence” – National Public Radio’s dire “tipping points” on coral reefs, Greenland ice and permafrost don’t hold up under scrutiny, says Anthony Watts in Climate Realism.
• “A world without air” – In WUWT?, Willis Eschenbach crunches the numbers and finds Earth’s climate sensitivity to CO₂ doubling is about half a degree Celsius – far below the IPCC’s three degrees.
• “Hallett Report refuses to question Britain’s damaging Covid vaccine policy” – The Hallett Report skips over Britain’s dodgy Covid vaccine policy, ignoring growing evidence of harm and the economic mess it caused, says Neville Hodgkinson in TCW.
• “Regional patterns of excess mortality in Germany during the COVID-19 pandemic: a state-level analysis” – Germany’s excess deaths spiked in year three and no longer tracked Covid, with Christof Kuhbandner and Matthias Reitzner in Royal Society Open Science finding that higher jab rates oddly aligned with worse outcomes, raising questions about what changed.
• “The world needs a new pandemic playbook” – The old pandemic playbook failed to cope with Covid and may even have caused it, say Drs Jay Bhattacharya and Matthew J. Memoli in City Journal.
• “Kick out Chinese firms” – A senior US official has suggested that Britain should exclude Chinese companies from building its critical infrastructure, reports the Telegraph.
• “France’s integration nightmare” – A country that once prided itself on assimilating newcomers has spent the past several decades dismantling the very idea of a dominant national ethos, writes James Tidmarsh in the Spectator.
• “Austria will ban girls from wearing Islamic headscarves in school” – Austria is set to ban girls under the age of 14 from wearing Islamic headscarves in school, saying they are a sign of oppression, reports the Mail.
• “Trump and Zelensky set for crunch talks on peace plan” – Donald Trump and Zelensky will negotiate the remainder of a peace deal for Ukraine following initial talks between their top advisers, says the Telegraph.
• “For the first time, an acceptable end to this war is in sight” – Almost four years after Russia invaded Ukraine, a plan created by the US and fine-tuned by Europe has made a peaceful resolution viable, writes Roland Oliphant in the Telegraph.
• “Australian senator accused of ‘blatant racism’ over burka protest” – Australian senator Pauline Hanson has been condemned for repeating a political stunt when she wore a burka to parliament in her attempts to ban the Muslim garment in public, reports Sky News.
• “How a burka brought bedlam to Australia’s parliament” – Labelling Pauline Hanson and her supporters as racists and extremists will only backfire, warns Terry Barnes in the Spectator.
• “Islam’s growing influence in Malaysia is now reaching airline drinks trolleys” – Calls from hardline groups to curb in-flight alcohol service are the latest flashpoint in Malaysia’s shift towards stricter laws, says Robert Jackman in the Telegraph.
• “It really is that simple: Christians are being killed for being Christians” – Donald Trump’s straightforward explanations are sometimes right, says Tim Stanley in the Telegraph. Islamists really are waging a war against Christians in northern Nigeria.
• “Why are we testing puberty blockers on children again?” – Scientists at King’s College London have been granted ethical approval to administer puberty blockers to dozens more children. Why? asks Debbie Hayton in the Spectator.
• “This puberty blocker trial is a wicked betrayal of our children. Wes Streeting must stop it now” – How can doctors administer drugs that they know can do long-term harm? wonders Suzanne Moore in the Telegraph.
• “See you there!” – After being cancelled by a woke London cinema last week, Spiked has now secured a new venue for its Think Before You Post documentary premiere on Tuesday 25th November, 7pm, in Central London.

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