News Round-Up

• “Rachel Reeves’s Budget is almost upon us. Prepare for economic disaster” – Labour will continue to limp from Budget to Budget for the rest of this parliament, slowly squeezing the life out of the country while insisting they have no choice, writes Adam Smith in the Telegraph.
• “Reform UK surge reaches London as poll shows Labour support diving” – The latest Savanta survey found Nigel Farage’s party were supported by 23% of voters in London, up from 15% in June, according to the Mail.
• “Tories and Reform need to send a message of hope with a promise to reverse Labour’s tax raids” – Labour’s dreaded Budget is, in fact, the perfect opportunity for the opposition, reckons Brian Monteith in the Telegraph.
• “Reeves wants to protect today’s poor by ruining all our tomorrows” – If Reeves really cared about the less well off, she would understand they can only be protected with an affluent society, says Ewen Stewart in City AM.
• “Teenagers to be paid more than £10 an hour in ‘crippling’ blow to job market” – Rachel Reeves has been accused of “crippling” the jobs market after she announced businesses will be forced to pay teenagers more than £10 an hour for the first time, reports the Telegraph.
• “Number of jobless university graduates surges by 8,000 in a year” – The number of graduates still unemployed more than a year after leaving university has surged by 8,000 amid a youth jobs crisis, according to Conservative Post.
• “Why Starmerism failed” – On Substack, Ed West charts Labour’s collapse under Starmer.
• “BBC not ‘in safe hands’ under chairman” – Culture committee chief Dame Caroline Dinenage says BBC chairman Samir Shah failed to win over MPs and turned in a “wishy-washy” performance when pressed on Telegraph revelations about bias at the corporation, reports the Mail.
• “David Olusoga’s Empire exposes the BBC’s history problem” – This slanted and biased version of history in the BBC’s Empire, fronted by David Olusoga, is nothing new, says Lawrence Goldman in the Spectator.
• “Migrants who cheated on British citizenship tests are being allowed to try again” – Migrants who cheated on their British citizenship tests by paying fraudsters to take them are being allowed to try again, reports the Sun.
• “Chilling mystery of asylum seeker accused of raping and murdering teen Lisa” – Mystery still surrounds the asylum seeker accused of raping and murdering a bike-riding teen, says the Sun.
• “Rwanda threat deterred more migrants than Starmer’s one in, one out deal” – Research suggests that Labour’s ‘one in, one out’ migrant policy has deterred Channel crossings at a lower rate than the Tories’ Rwanda scheme, reports the Telegraph.
• “The taxi driver who’s promoting a genocidal guerrilla group in Sudan” – An illegal Sudanese migrant turned Sheffield cabbie is openly cheerleading a genocidal militia online while others are jailed for their tweets, writes Glen Keogh in the Mail.
• “Moment Palestine Action activist ‘broke police officer’s back with sledgehammer’” – The Sun has horrifying footage of the moment a Palestine Action activist attacked a police officer with a sledgehammer and broke her spine. 
• “NHS puberty blockers trial risks repeat of Tavistock, warn whistleblowers” – Medics who blew the whistle on the controversial gender clinic have warned a new trial of puberty blockers risks repeating the Tavistock’s failures, reports the Telegraph.
• “This is what doctors have told me about puberty blockers. As a mother, I’m terrified” – Puberty blockers were rightly banned, so it’s baffling to now see an NHS experiment will give them to children who claim to be transgender, writes Celia Walden in the Telegraph.
• “The Princess of Wales could not be more wrong about addiction” – The Princess of Wales may mean well and feel genuine sympathy for addicts; but unfortunately her view is simple, unsophisticated, dehumanising and empirically false, says Theodore Dalrymple in the Telegraph.
• “BBC headlines ‘three times as likely to vilify Israel over Hamas’” – A study of BBC headlines since the October 7th attacks has found three times more were critical of Israel than of Hamas, reports the Telegraph.
• “Daily Mail owner given three weeks to finalise Telegraph bid” – The owner of the Daily Mail has been given three weeks to finalise its £500 million bid for the Telegraph, according to the Telegraph.
• “Starmer apologises to head teacher after leading children in banned TikTok dance” – Sir Keir Starmer has apologised to a school head after leading primary school pupils in a viral TikTok dance that has been banned by some teachers, reports the Mail.
• “Literally tragic, as opposed to simply foolish and appalling” – On Substack, Dr David McGrogan tears into lockdown orthodoxy, arguing the Covid Inquiry proves our leaders still prefer models to reality.
• “The Contradiction in the Covid Inquiries’ use of modelling” – On the TTE Substack, Prof Carl Heneghan and Dr Tom Jefferson expose how the Covid Inquiry’s claim that an earlier lockdown could have saved 23,000 lives relies on flawed, misunderstood modelling treated as fact.
• “Do supermarkets really make us sick?” – Profit and health are not the enemies that the Lancet’s student politics likes to make out, writes Ross Clark in the Spectator.
• “How environmentalists forced a nuclear plant to go on a £700 million fish rescue mission” – How much are the lives of endangered fish really worth? asks Matt Oliver in the Telegraph.
• “Britain’s Net Zero nightmare is destroying heavy industry” – Labour is blind to the devastating consequences of its environmental zealotry, warns Rob Lyons in Spiked.
• “Miliband waters down pledge to cut energy bills” – Ed Miliband’s Energy Department has quietly watered down its pledge to cut household bills as costs keep climbing under Net Zero, reports the Telegraph.
• “UK most expensive place to develop nuclear power, report says” – The UK has become the “most expensive place in the world” to build nuclear power plants, according to a government review which criticises “overly complex” bureaucracy around the sector, says the BBC.
• “The Net Zero death duty” – On Substack, the Rationals reveal how Labour is using inheritance tax to push prime farmland into solar and wind farms and rewilding estates.
• “Dissecting Scotland’s economy-wrecking Net Zero plans” – On the Dead Man Walking Substack, Doug Brodie lays bare Scotland’s Net Zero plans as costly, ineffective and damaging to the economy.
• “Scotland the grave – part two” – In Climate Scepticism, Mark Hodgson continues his sceptical look at Scotland’s ambitious climate plan, arguing its emissions are too small to impact global warming, while the economic costs and environmental trade-offs pose more harm than good.
• “Here’s an inside look at the UN’s disastrous climate conference” – COP30 spiralled into chaos as Amazon deforestation, venue failures and China’s major climate push overshadowed the UN’s so-called summit, reports Aubrey Streb in the Daily Caller.
• “Fiddling while Belém burns” – In Climate Scepticism, Mark Hodgson calls out COP30 in Belém as a hollow summit full of empty promises, dodged commitments and no real action on fossil fuels.
• “How much asbestos do wind turbines contain?” – Following the discovery of asbestos lift brake pads in Chinese-manufactured Australian turbines, turbine operators are now conducting a frantic audit, reports Eric Worrall in WUWT?
• “SNP ordered separate NHS app as ‘it would look bad to use English one’” – SNP ministers decided to create their much-delayed Scottish NHS app from scratch after being warned against the “political optics of adopting” the existing English version, according to the Telegraph.
• “The political war in Glasgow, Britain’s asylum capital” – Glaswegians have always taken pride in offering refuge, but the city’s immigration policies are testing their hospitality, warns Annabel Denham in the Telegraph.
• “Primary school cancels Syrian refugee-themed Nativity after backlash” – Cauldeen primary in Inverness has cancelled a Syrian refugee-themed nativity after parents bombarded teachers with abuse online, reports the Telegraph.
• “The report that lays bare France’s Islamist networks” – France’s new Senate report bluntly warns that Islamist networks have embedded themselves across public life and urges sweeping powers to stop the advance, writes James Tidmarsh in the Spectator.
• “Visit Hungary this Christmas – there are no illegal immigrants, says Orban” – Viktor Orban has told tourists to visit Hungary this Christmas because there are no illegal immigrants, according to the Telegraph.
• “Battle for Ukraine splits Trump’s top team” – J.D. Vance and Marco Rubio hold rival views on the path to peace, and whoever’s vision triumphs will leave a lasting mark, writes Memphis Barker in the Telegraph.
• “As a Ukrainian MP, I must be honest with my people” – We will not abandon our core principles, but peace will require pragmatism, says Oleksiy Goncharenko in the Telegraph.
• “Iran loses control of the Houthis” – Iran has lost control of the Houthis in Yemen and is struggling to hold together what is left of its “axis of resistance” forces around the Middle East, according to the Telegraph.
• “Fury as ‘biological male’ wins World’s Strongest Woman event in Texas” – The 2025 World’s Strongest Woman final descended into chaos after an alleged trans athlete took gold, sparking outrage from athletes and coaches, reports the Mail.
• “The problem with funky vicars” – In the Spectator, Gareth Roberts slams celebrity vicars like Kate Bottley for turning the Church into pop culture fluff instead of offering serious faith and guidance.
• “An artist made an ‘anti-racist’ version of the UK flag. You’ll never guess what happened next” – The woke Left has started to eat itself – and this extraordinary story proves it, says Michael Deacon in the Telegraph.
• “Thanks a lot Labour!” – On X, a spoof AI mini-doc features a raft of toddlers chewing Labour’s policies out one by one.

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