News Round-Up

• “Britain on track for worst growth in 100 years – latest updates” – Britain has been warned it is heading for the weakest growth outlook in a century as households and firms stay squeezed, reports the Telegraph.
• “Under Labour, Britain is heading for its John Galt moment” – Reality mirrors Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged as entrepreneurs and talented people give up and disappear, and the economy starts to collapse, writes David Frost in the Telegraph.
• “BBC plots £600m of cuts with fears for jobs and programming” – The BBC has been drawing up plans for sweeping cuts as its finances tighten, says the Telegraph.
• “In a Hong Kong prison, Jimmy Lai has been left to die alone” – Jimmy Lai has been kept in solitary confinement in Hong Kong’s Stanley Prison as his case drags on, notes the Telegraph.
• “Canada school shooter was transgender teenager” – Canada has been reeling after a school massacre by a trans teen in British Columbia that left eight dead and many injured, reveals the Telegraph.
• “Revealed: 6ft trans school shooter wanted to be ‘petite’” – Investigators have been piecing together the Canadian school shooter’s online posts, reports the Telegraph.
• “BBC to face £10 billion Trump lawsuit next February after judge’s ruling” – The BBC has been ordered to proceed in Trump’s libel case after a judge refused an application to delay, says the Times.
• “‘Authority is like virginity. Once it’s gone, it’s gone’: Inside Keir Starmer’s downfall” – Sir Keir Starmer is losing his grip in Westminster as internal rows and resignations mount, says Tim Shipman in the Spectator.
• “Scrap ‘unfair’ migrant crackdown, Labour MPs tell Starmer” – Labour MPs have been urging Starmer to ditch his tougher migration stance as the soft Left asserts itself, according to the Telegraph.
• “Top civil servant gets £260k severance after Starmer overrules objections” – The £260,000 exit package of Sir Chris Wormald has triggered fury after Starmer reportedly overruled the Civil Service’s objections, reveals the Times.
• “Greens to vote on legalising heroin to make society more inclusive” – The Greens are preparing to vote on legalising drugs, including heroin, says the Telegraph.
• “Labour-run council spends £6,000 on takeaways – then raises tax” – Southwark Council ran up bills of £6,000 on takeaways for staff while pushing up council tax bills, according to the Telegraph.
• “Make jobseekers on benefits pick up rubbish, litter campaigners say” – Campaigners have been calling for jobseekers to be forced to go on litter-picking duty as a condition of receiving benefits, reports the Times.
• “FA to probe Sir Jim Ratcliffe as he apologises for ‘offending some people’ after saying migrants ‘colonised’ Britain – but insists he was right to raise immigration” – The Football Association is weighing up whether to investigate Sir Jim for bringing the beautiful game into disrepute, according to the Mail. Sounds like a case for the Free Speech Union.
• “Why was Jim Ratcliffe punished for speaking the truth?” – Jim Ratcliffe should not be penalised for speaking out about immigration, says Brendan O’Neill in the Spectator.
• “Jim Ratcliffe has a point about Britain” – Britain has been ignoring voters’ anger about immigration for too long, writes Ross Clark in the Spectator.
• “Europe’s War on Democracy” – The EU is building a censorship machinery in an effort to control the narrative and suppress dissent, says Thomas Fazi in Compact.
• “UK fines US platform Imgur for lack of age verification” – The Information Commissioner’s Office has fined MediaLab, which operates image hosting company Imgur, £247,590, claims Reclaim The Net.
• “Victoria launches digital birth certificate trial, linking newborns to Australia’s national digital ID system” – The state of Victoria has been trialling digital birth certificates as part of Australia’s new ban on under-16s accessing social media, according to Reclaim The Net.
• “Exclusive: children paid in NHS puberty blocker trial” – Children are going to receive vouchers for participating in the NHS’s puberty-blocker trial, reports the Telegraph.
• “Children will be allowed to change their gender at school” – The Department for Education has finally issued guidance for schools on how to manage trans-identifying pupils, but it’s a watered-down version of the previous government’s never-released guidance, says the Times.
• “Are cross-sex drugs driving trans shooters to kill?” – Concerns have been raised about whether cross-hormone drugs issued to gender-confused adolescents may be driving them to kill, notes the Telegraph.
• “Why was Canada so afraid of misgendering a trans shooter?” – The Canadian police were careful to refer to the trans school shooter by his preferred pronouns. But why? asks Jane Stannus in the Spectator.
• “Scientific American is a scandal prone mess and can’t do science” – Scientific American has now lost all scientific credibility, says Paul D. Thacker in the The DisInformation Chronicle.
• “Ed Miliband is the last fool standing on Net Zero” – Britain has been urged to rethink Net Zero as other countries retreat and costs bite at home, reports the Telegraph.
• “Time for Ed 2.0? Labour members suggest they want former party leader Miliband to replace Keir Starmer as prime minister” – Ed Miliband once again ruled himself out of running for the Labour leadership this week. But is he secretly planning a bid? asks the Mail.
• “Reality hits the Washington Post’s ever-shrinking climate desk” – The Washington Post has been cutting back its climate team as wider newsroom cost pressures intensify, reports the Climate Change Dispatch.
• “Hell has frozen over: the Washington Post discovers the limits of the Environmental Protection Agency” – When the Washington Post editorial board publishes a piece titled “EPA is right to reverse Obama overreach” Charles Rotter is forced to check the date isn’t April 1st.
• “Prince William’s Earthshot charity is reported to the Charities Commission over Epstein donor questions” – Prince William’s Earthshot Prize has been reported to the Charities Commission after newly-released emails implicated a ‘founding partner’ had sent a ‘torture video’ to billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, reports the Mail.
• “Olympic daredevils cower behind covid masks” – Olympic athletes are still masking up in spite of the pandemic being long over. Why? asks Roger Watson in the Conservative Woman.
• “Olympic hypocrisy over Ukraine helmet scandal is outrageous” – The Winter Olympics has become embroiled in a row after disqualifying a Ukraine athlete for wearing a helmet paying tribute to the country’s war dead, says the Telegraph.
• “Author Tibor Fischer: ‘Protesting gives the far-Left a social life’” – Tibor Fischer takes aim at protest culture, small-boats politics and critics of Viktor Orbán in an interview in the Telegraph.
• “John Cleese is right about ‘Islamophobia’” – John Cleese says the word “Islamophobia” is used to pathologise criticism of Islam – and he’s right, says Michael Deacon in the Telegraph.
• “To understand pure stupidity, watch The News Agents” – The News Agents is a case study in partisan dimness and illogical argument, writes Rod Liddle in the Spectator.
• “The 26 year-old Brit who is the anti-woke voice of Gen Z women” – Freya India is profiled in the Times.
• “‘Sharp-elbowed’ middle class families behind soaring special needs funding, think tank claims” – Special-needs spending has been soaring as better-resourced parents fight for provision and private placements, reveals the Telegraph.
• “Labour’s humiliation is richly deserved” – Labour is reaping the consequences of strategic and messaging failures at the top, reports the Times.
• “Why are so many utopianists paedophiles?” – On his Substack, Paul Sutton asks why so many Left-wing crusaders for a better world turn out to be peados.
• “These terrifying union powers are hidden in Labour’s new Employment Rights Act” – ReasonedUK issues a warning video about the hidden horrors in Labour’s Employment Rights Act.

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