News Round-Up

• “British living standards ‘to fall behind Malta’” – Economists have warned that high inflation, rising debt and weak growth have left Britain at risk of falling behind Malta on living standards, warns the Telegraph.
• “Boxing Day sales slump confirmed with fears of £1 billion profits plunge” – Boxing Day spending has slumped as shoppers have stayed away from high streets and shifted online amid worries about tax rises, reports the Mail.
• “BBC suffers worst ever Christmas as ratings slump” – The BBC has endured its worst-ever Christmas ratings, with its top programme drawing around two thirds fewer viewers than last year, reveals the Telegraph.
• “Outraged Brits reveal why they are now refusing to pay the BBC licence fee – as millions drop their support over ‘threatening letters, woke programmes and biased reporting’” – Millions have been refusing to pay the BBC licence fee despite using its services, as resentment has grown over threatening letters, woke programmes and alleged bias, notes the Mail.
• “Free speech group’s lawyer: I was targeted by Chinese spies” – The Free Speech Union’s Chief Legal Counsel has said he has been targeted by suspected Chinese spies using fake researcher personas and AI-generated emails, says the Times.
• “Anti-Semitism is a threat to our national security” – Rising anti-Semitism and recent violence have become a national-security threat requiring urgent action, writes Lord Walney in the Mail.
• “Sir James Dyson: Reeves has put my family business at risk” – Sir James Dyson has said Rachel Reeves’s inheritance-tax raid has put his family business at risk, reports the Telegraph.
• “Who could replace Keir Starmer as Labour leader? His rivals rated” – Labour MPs have been weighing up possible successors to Sir Keir Starmer as his polling numbers continue to plummet and internal rivals have begun to emerge, says the Times.
• “Give Reform UK seats in the Lords, senior Tory tells Starmer” – Lord True, the Conservative leader in the Lords, has urged the Prime Minister to give Reform UK seats in the Lords so every Commons party is represented in the Upper Chamber, according to the Telegraph.
• “Labour’s bleak midwinter The Party has forgotten what it is for” – In UnHerd, Maurice Glasman argues that Labour has forgotten its purpose and must recover a politics rooted in solidarity and the common good.
• “UK teacher reported to terror program over Donald Trump videos | The Jerusalem Post” – The Jerusalem Post follows up yesterday’s story in the Telegraph about a teacher being referred to prevent for showing his Politics A-Level class Trump campaign videos. 
• “UK politics teacher reported to terrorism investigators for showing students Trump videos: ‘Dystopian’” – Ditto, the New York Post.
• “Schools ‘must restore common sense’ after officials refer teacher to Prevent over Trump videos” – Reform and the Conservatives have urged schools to restore “common sense” after the Trump/Prevent fiasco, reports the Telegraph.
• “Postman sacked for ‘misogyny’ after arguing with female colleague” – The Employment Tribunal has ruled that postman Floyd Reed was unfairly dismissed after being accused of “misogyny” for being rude to a female co-worker, says the Telegraph.
• “To save the Church of England, we must disestablish it” – In the Telegraph, Robert Tombs argues that the Church of England can only be revived if it is disestablished and freed from state control.
• “Rural England mounts show of defiance to Labour trail hunting ban” – Rural communities have rallied against Labour’s proposed trail-hunting ban, with Boxing Day meets attracting high-profile supporters, according to the Times.
• “Politicians in north London shouldn’t dictate our free time, say huntsmen” – Huntsmen have insisted that London politicians should not dictate what they do in their leisure time, reports the Telegraph.
• “Boxing Day hunt defies Chris Packham and local council to go ahead with centuries-old tradition as Labour’s ban looms” – Hundreds turned out for a Boxing Day hunt in Devon despite pressure from a local council and campaigners, says the Mail.
• “Peace referendum Ukraine’s ‘Brexit’ moment, says Zelensky” – Volodymyr Zelensky has said any peace deal must be endorsed in a referendum ahead of his meeting with Donald Trump, according to the Telegraph.
• “Left-wing German politicians used ‘HateAid’ to censor their enemies and then lied about it” – German politicians used the ‘HateAid’ network to silence opponents, writes Pauline Voss in the Public Substack.
• “Judge Blocks Trump Admin From Deporting ‘Anti-Disinformation’ Activist Under Visa Ban” – A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from deporting pro-censorship lobbyist Imran Ahmed, according to Reuters.
• “The volunteers replanting Britain’s lost rainforests” – Volunteers have been restoring Britain’s rare temperate rainforests by replanting native woodland in rain-soaked valleys and on wind-scoured hillsides, reports the Times.
• “‘Newt taxes’ on housing schemes raise millions for Natural England” – Natural England has raised millions from developers through ‘newt taxes’ that have required builders to pay for protected-species mitigation, reveals the Times.
• “Named and shamed, England’s worst councils for dealing with fly-tipping: See the full list of 41 feckless local authorities that haven’t prosecuted or fined anyone in the past year… so is yours one of them?” – Dozens of councils have failed to prosecute or fine anyone for fly-tipping over the past year, according to the Mail.
• “No, NPR, CBS, and NBC, climate change isn’t a proven cause of Arctic warming” – Anthony Watts in WUWT? says the Arctic-warming narrative doesn’t meet basic climate-period standards and has been used to promote alarmism.
• “Claim: some men downplay climate concerns because of gender insecurity” – A new study has suggested that some men downplay climate worries to avoid appearing weak or feminine. Errant nonsense, says Eric Worrall in WUWT?
• “Who were the metropolitan liberals?” – In J’accuse, J Sorel, formerly of this parish, says Britain’s metropolitan liberals are a waning class whose power and confidence has ebbed.
• “This year wokeness lost its grip on the arts” – 2025 was the year that wokeness finally lost its grip on the arts, says Alexander Larman in the Telegraph.
• “Zack Polanski’s Christmas message was certainly more than a handful” – The Crewkerne Gazette has used AI to enhance Zack Polanski’s Christmas message, recalling his days as the ‘Boob Whisperer’.

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