News Round-Up
- “Sadiq Khan claims London is getting safer. These charts prove him wrong” – A set of blunt crime charts has punctured the Mayor’s upbeat claims about safety in the capital, reveals the Telegraph.
- “Why London feels lawless” – Selective statistics and polished briefings have failed to reassure Londoners who feel crime is spiralling, writes David Shipley in the Spectator.
- “Starmer’s crime Bill: safer streets, poorer freedoms” – Starmer’s crime Bill trades away basic freedoms for the illusion of safety, warns the Rationals Substack.
- “Birmingham is becoming a doppelganger for pre-Nazi Berlin” – Berlin’s police were considered weak and vacillating in the early 1930s, writes Paul Goodman in the Telegraph. There are ominous parallels with our second city today.
- “The West Midlands police chief represents everything that’s wrong with Britain” – Chief Constable Craig Guildford’s record is a symbol of deeper failures in public authority, argues Allison Pearson in the Telegraph.
- “UK officials may be barred from US over X ban” – The US Department of State’s Sarah B. Rogers says “nothing is off the table” if X is banned in the UK, according to Politico.
- “A social media ban for youngsters won’t actually work, but it will destroy vital freedoms” – Plans to keep teenagers off social media are naïve and deeply illiberal, says Silkie Carlo in the Telegraph.
- “A social media ban in Britain could backfire spectacularly” – Copying Australia’s social media ban is a recipe for chaos and unintended consequences, warns Matthew Lesh the Telegraph.
- “The conservative case for an under-16 social media ban” – What hope do we have of turning this country round if we have an entire generation warped by social media? asks John Nash in the Spectator.
- “Elon Musk’s X stops bikini bot undressing women” – X has moved to clamp down on AI deepfake tools after a storm of public outrage, reports the Telegraph.
- “Starmer is hell-bent on destroying your right to a private life ” – Sir Keir Starmer is about to turn your smartphone into a government surveillance device with access to all your private messages in real time, warns Zia Yusuf in the Telegraph.
- “Half of pubs shutting early after Reeves tax raid” – Pub owners are being forced to close early or ditch lunchtime service after Rachel Reeves’s tax raid, reports the Telegraph.
- “Sacha Lord condemns Rachel Reeves as being ‘worse for pubs than Covid’ as landlords say rescue package is not enough to save them after Chancellor’s hammer-blow tax raid” – Pub owners say tax changes could finish them off despite last-minute tweaks from the Treasury, according to the Mail.
- “Wellcome Trust builds £3.7 billion war chest over stock market crash fears” – Britain’s largest charity has stockpiled billions in cash, hoping to snap up bargains amid market chaos, reports City AM.
- “This Labour Government is fascinatingly awful” – This Government is fascinatingly bad, in a way that attracts your wonder at the same time as it repels, says Gareth Roberts in the Spectator.
- “Reform drops to lowest popularity with voters in eight months amid new year poll surge in support for Kemi Badenoch’s Tories” – New polling has shown Reform sliding as the Conservatives enjoy a modest revival, reports the Mail.
- “Is Reform really becoming the Tory party 2.0?” – The influx of ex-Tory grandees casts doubts about whether Reform is still a genuine insurgent force, writes our very own Laurie Wastell in the Spectator.
- “The quiet Mumsnet revolution that could help Reform into power” – New data has revealed lots of Left-leaning women quietly backing Nigel Farage, says Jill Foster in the Telegraph.
- “Migrant who entered UK saying he was a health worker was found working in a curry house” – Another case has fuelled growing concern that NHS visas are being widely exploited, reports the Mail.
- “On immigration: William Clouston or Robert Jenrick?” – The SDP’s William Clouston is shaking up immigration politics, writes Duke Maskell on Substack.
- “Chagos islanders demand reparations from Starmer” – Chagos islanders are seeking reparations from the UK over Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to give away their homeland, reports the Telegraph.
- “France pushes to block Ukraine from buying US weapons” – Paris is trying to force Kyiv to spend Western aid on European arms instead of American kit, says the Politico.
- “EU bans ‘motherly’ and ‘Frenchmen’ in war on gendered words” – Brussels has rolled out new language rules aimed at scrubbing out supposedly biased terms, reports the Telegraph.
- “Keir Starmer ‘will accept place on Trump’s board to run Gaza’” – Sir Keir Starmer is expected to accept an offer to sit on Trump’s new “Board of Peace” to run Gaza following October’s ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, says the Mail.
- “ICE agent who shot woman dead is ‘not expected to face criminal charges’ as FBI zeroes in on victim’s ‘history of Trump hating’” – Federal investigators are reportedly investigating ICE shooting victim Renee Good’s possible connections with activist groups protesting Trump’s immigration crackdown, reports the Mail.
- “Bill and Hillary Clinton declare themselves above the law as they defy Epstein subpoena with astonishing letter slamming Trump’s ‘cruel agenda’” – The Clintons have flatly refused to cooperate with Congress over the Epstein investigation, reveals the Mail.
- “12,000 anti-regime protesters have been killed, Iranian opposition figures claim, as Tehran admits to ‘2,000 deaths’ hours before hero demonstrator faces execution” – Starkly different death tolls have laid bare the brutality of Iran’s crackdown, reports the Mail.
- “‘There are rivers of blood’: the true horror of Iran’s protest massacres” – Doctors have painted a grim picture of mass killings in Iran hidden from the outside world, writes Akhtar Makoii in the Telegraph.
- “There’s a feminist revolution going on in Iran, so why are self-righteous Lefty luvvies struck dumb?” – Hollywood’s silence on Iranian women risking death on the streets is straight up moral cowardice, argues Khadija Khan in the Mail.
- “Iranians fight back against regime’s weapon of choice” – Protesters have risked everything to get around an internet blackout that’s trying to silence them, reports Sophia Yan in the Telegraph.
- “Scottish independence accounts go dark after Iran internet blackout” – Multiple pro-Scottish independence accounts on X, which regularly pump out pro-independence messages, abruptly stopped posting on January 8th – the date the Iranian authorities began their internet blackout, says the Mail.
- “Common Law’s advantage in Africa’s criminal courts” – The Lawtech Dispatches Substack shows why Common Law’s checks and balances are crucial in Africa, where institutions struggle.
- “The decline and fall of the West” – On Substack, James Thompson traces how the West has drifted into cultural exhaustion, political incoherence and a loss of confidence.
- “Elephant kills 20 in India rampage” – A rampaging elephant in India has left dozens dead and entire villages on edge, says CBS.
- “The doctor who wanted me dead” – In the Spectator, Leyla Sanai shares a harrowing account of being told her disabled life was not worth saving.
- “Norway to reopen ‘dead’ North Sea oil fields as Britain retreats” – Norway is tapping old oil fields as the UK wrongly claims they’re ‘dead’, reports the Telegraph.
- “Britain ‘less investable than Venezuela’, says North Sea boss” – Energy leaders say Britain is driving away investment with ideological policymaking, according to the Telegraph.
- “Most popular used electric cars lose up to 28% in value in a year” – Plummeting resale values have taken the shine off electric cars for many buyers, reports the Telegraph.
- “Net Zero costs will be worse than feared, report finds” – A new report warns that the price of hitting Net Zero could blow past even the most pessimistic forecasts, according to the Telegraph.
- “How much will Net Zero cost?” – Officialdom has produced a blizzard of wildly different figures that still leave the true cost of Net Zero unclear, says David Turver in the Spectator.
- “Miliband’s Net Zero zealotry will be Labour’s downfall” – The Energy Secretary’s clean power targets are total fantasy that will leave voters poorer, warns Ben Marlow in the Telegraph.
- “Pupils vote to rename Samuel Pepys house over writer’s ‘abuse of women’” – Pupils at Samuel Pepys’s old school have voted to strip his name from one of their houses because of his “abusive and exploitative” behaviour towards women, reports the Telegraph.
- “In favour of Amendment 370A to the Crime and Policing Bill” – In the Lords, Toby calls out a militant pro-trans activist group for attacking the Free Speech Union and backs a new law to crack down on protest groups that break the law to intimidate others into silence.
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Why do you need a law that says that breaking the law is illegal?
If protestors are breaking the law, then… they’re already breaking the law.
But what would all our lawmakers do with themselves?
I am reminded of how Louis XIV would mandate the learning and practice of complex dance routines to keep the courtiers at Versailles busy and distracted and out of his luxurious hair (and maybe in his bed).
I have just noticed that our profile names here have changed from red to blue. Controversial!
My friend told me that’s how ballet started. Not sure if it’s true but if so, good for Louis XIV!
So, Gaza is going to get some sstarmer as well?
Serves them right.
It’ll be a full-time job. He’ll need to step down as PM.
https://oc-media.org/kadyrovs-kidneys-have-failed-ukrainian-media-reports/
The joke:
‘Russia’s Foreign Ministry had issued four separate statements on Washington’s military operation in Venezuela, denouncing it as “armed aggression by the United States against Venezuela…….Ideologized animosity has prevailed over pragmatic engagement……an unacceptable violation of the sovereignty of an independent state, the respect for which is a fundamental principle of international law.”
The problem:
“The Russians are getting really close to disconnecting the ZNPP from the Ukrainian power grid and connecting it to the Russian one, which is going to make reintegration efforts not impossible, but very difficult……It really shows that they have no interest in actually engaging in good faith with this [peace] plan, because they want full control over the ZNPP, no matter the nuclear security consequences,”
The solution:
For Russia, however, the greatest risk posed by a U.S. return to Venezuela isn’t necessarily the loss of specific assets. Instead, it may be the broader prospect of downward pressure on global oil prices. Any sustained increase in Venezuelan output would further strain Russia’s federal budget, already destabilized by massive military spending.
The curve ball:
Putin described Chechnya as “a 400-year-old problem.” He noted that the region had always sought independence and that “we should respect this,” but argued that independence was no longer possible.
On 31 December 2025, the Russian independent outlet Novaya Gazeta Europe reported that Kadyrov had been hospitalised in Moscow due to a sharp deterioration in his health.’
Oh no! He’s not got a room on the sixth floor has he?
A social media ban for youngsters won’t actually work, but it will destroy vital freedoms
Have I got this straight? They’ll be banned from social media until they’re 16 – which is the age Labour want them to be able to vote? But they won’t be able to buy a drink in a pub or a national lottery ticket or cigarettes for another 2 years?
Wellcome Trust builds £3.7 billion war chest over stock market crash fears ‘The Wellcome Trust Limited as trustee of the Wellcome Trust) announce that they have each published their Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year to 30 September 2021 today. We are pleased to report that our charitable expenditure on Wellcome’s mission to support science to solve the urgent health challenges facing everyone was £1.2 billion. Our investment base rose to approximately £38.2 billion, a total return of 34.5 per cent, or 33.0 per cent after inflation, for the year to 30 September 2021.’ ‘Two Wellcome Trust investment experts shared more than £9m in benefits last year as its portfolio value soared. The charity made investment gains of £3.3bn despite the coronavirus pandemic negatively affecting financial markets in the second half of the year’ 2020 ‘Wellcome Director Dr Jeremy Farrar will take up the position of Chief Scientist of the World Health Organization after leaving Wellcome next year.’ 2022 ‘I (Farrar) was asked to speak first. I was in the spotlight. The truth could not be sugar-coated. ‘We are about six weeks into this outbreak and this virus can now clearly spread between humans,’ I told the audience, explaining… Read more »
There are no freedoms via social media just different types of subtle slavery. The devices we all carry around with us mean that we are already more cyborg and less human. The fact that the technology is not planted under our skin doesn’t mean it’s not human augmentation – we allow it to be integrated with us through sheer addiction. These devices brainwash us, surveil us, make us less intelligent and, ultimately, control us by dialling down our humanity and dialling up our machine-like materialism. At the very least they should be treated as a class A drug; at best they would be all destroyed and never see the light of day again. That will never happen because they are the single most important tool for the state, so what 4D chess is being played here?
I agree with a lot of what you say, and adults and children should indeed feel free to abstain from social media. Parents should feel free to do whatever they can to stop their children accessing it, or educating their children to use it sensibly, in whatever way they see fit. Just don’t impose this on everyone. Others may have a different view, or be able to use social media constructively.
The same could be said about books.
If you think a book is a reasonable comparison to a smartphone then I really don’t know what to say to you.
Books come in all shapes and sizes, as does smartphone content. Some of that content you will approve of, some not. Feel free to choose what you want to access and what you want your children to access. I will do the same. But don’t presume to decide what is good for me and my kids.
Alot of Anti Israel accounts seemed to have gone dark as well.
That shouldn’t surprise anyone if the accounts are running out of Iran.
However in the Daily Mail article:
I gather from this that the ‘experts’ had a major assist to identify the source – they looked it up on X.
I don’t understand the accusations of being Tory-lite agaist Reform. There are probably hundreds of thousands of former Tory voters, like me, who have swapped sides.
I don’t mind the politicians joining Reform. I have confidence in Reform leadership to maintain their policy stance and ensure that newcomers at whatever level adhere to it or leave.
No-one can be unaware of their position. People who disagree are free to have a strop, leave and set up their own party. Ultimately the voters will choose what best suits them/us.
True, but people do matter and if Reform continue to recruit individuals with a highly tainted past that indicates their political instincts are contrary to the spirit of Reform, who don’t appear to have seen the grave errors of their ways, then don’t be surprised if there is concern. Just because the Uniparty alternative is catastrophic doesn’t mean we must support Reform unconditionally. I expect I will hold my nose and do so, but without much enthusiasm.
Fully agree. I wonder how many Reform supporters want a fresh start, rather than picking up Conservative politicians with a tainted past. Zahawi is a prime example. Tax issues, pro-immigration stance, vaccine mandates and arrogantly dismissing vaccine question during a press conference. I really worry that Zahawi will put off many Reform voters and thus cause greater fragmentation of the alternative vote.
It’s a risk. Farage and Tice didn’t exactly lead the resistance to covid tyranny either. They need to make huge inroads into illegal and legal immigration and dismantle net zero to make up for this, in my eyes – as both of these pose an existential threat to our country.
Why take this risk? Does Farage hope that this will pull more conservative votes than repel reform votes?
I guess Zahawi has money, contacts, experience in government, defection makes the Tories lose credibility. I wonder if he thinks of it as a risk or whether he wouldn’t particularly understand why the likes of us are sceptical. Would be interested to know.
Farage knows that this will pull in more of “The Muslim Vote”, and that will put him into No. 10…
“Selective statistics and polished briefings have failed to reassure Londoners who feel crime is spiralling,”
then why o why do they keep voting for the Khant?
“Reform drops to lowest popularity with voters in eight months amid new year poll surge in support for Kemi Badenoch’s Tories”
Stop taking in ‘has been’ tories! Build a new party Nigel not a hybrid
May I add this to the Round-Up: Racism horror as Nigel Farage says employers should be allowed to discriminate “Anti-racism campaigners and unions have voiced their horror after Nigel Farage said employers should be allowed to discriminate against non-British applicants.” “The Reform leader reopened a decade-old row after doubling down on his belief that race equality rules should be ripped up to make it easier for bosses to reject staff because of their nationality.” In Maggie Thatcher’s time, and for centuries before that, ALL EMPLOYERS in the UK were REQUIRED to discriminate against non-British applicants, because that is NORMAL for any country in the world !!! Employers were required to prove to the government that the foreigner they wanted to hire had special skills that were not available among the British applicants they had already considered. Then the foreigner was required to work AT THE SAME FULL-TIME JOB for 7 YEARS, without ever claiming any welfare benefits, before the foreigner could even APPLY for British citizenship. Just as in India, no foreigner can get a work permit unless they have a “Certificate of Indian Origin”, meaning their ancestry is Ethnic Indian = “racism”. There’s nothing wrong with racism. It’s just… Read more »
It’s no wonder you never provide sources to support your ‘armchair expert’ Jackanory ramblings. That way you get to chat absolute BS with impunity, and mugs on here lap it up because it confirms their bias. India, as with many other countries, requires foreign nationals to obtain a work visa before they commence employment in the country. It’s irrelevant whether applicants are of Indian origin or not;
”Indian citizens do not need right-to-work checks. However, any non-Indian citizen must hold a valid visa that allows employment or business activity. The two most common options are the Employment Visa and the Business Visa.
An employer is responsible for ensuring that the category of visa held by a foreign national corresponds to the nature of the individual’s assignment in India. For example, a professional engaged in full-time employment with an Indian company must hold a valid Employment Visa issued in the name of that company. A foreign national whose purpose is limited to attending board meetings, exploring commercial opportunities, or establishing a subsidiary may enter on a Business Visa, provided the activities fall within the scope permitted under that category.”
https://remote.com/blog/relocation/work-permits-visas-india
“ICE agent who shot woman dead is ‘not expected to face criminal charges’ as FBI zeroes in on victim’s ‘history of Trump hating’”
I can’t resist quoting the Scots Patriot comedian Leo Kearse on his video about this:
White liberal women are risking their lives for people who hate them
“I hope Trump tries to de-escalate the situation by pardoning Derek Chauvin, making him Judge Dredd for Minneapolis, and giving him a gold-plated machine gun.”
One public Infowars comment on the Minnesota videos of shrieking Leftist women of all ethnicities attacking Law Enforcement Officers:
“Vulgar women. For generations men and society have been chivalrous to women. And because of it they’ve morphed into this spoiled brat entitlement attitude that they can get away with anything. Abuse, disrespect, vulgarity, knowing intrinsically that there will be no retaliation from men and society… until now. These types of women are sickening and vulgar.”
I agree.