News Round-Up

• “Election delays are wrong, says watchdog” – The Chief Executive of Britain’s electoral watchdog has slammed the decision to allow 30 local authorities to postpone elections due to have taken place in May, reports the Telegraph.
• “Starmer is a puppet of the wastrel Left, lashed to a ship he no longer steers” – In the Mail, Dan Hannan reckons Keir Starmer has ended up chained to the very Left-wing forces he once tried to shake off.
• “Keir Starmer was talked out of his Chagos ‘wobble’ by Powell and Hermer” – Keir Starmer apparently had serious second thoughts about the Chagos Islands handover but his key advisers Jonathan Powell and Lord Hermer talked him back on board, reveals the Mail.
• “Andrew leaked confidential Treasury briefing to banker friend” – Prince Andrew forwarded a secret Treasury document to a banker buddy back when he was UK trade envoy, reports the Express.
• “Why isn’t Reform welcome on university campuses?” – Campuses have pretty much declared Reform UK persona non grata by branding the party racist, transphobic and worse, says Joanna Williams in the Spectator.
• “The wheels are coming off Wes’s grand plan” – With staff morale sinking and plans grinding to a halt, Wes Streeting’s NHS shake-up is already hitting the buffers, says Prof Carl Heneghan on the Trust the Evidence Substack.
• “Peter Murrell ‘faces charge of embezzling £459,000 from SNP’” – Ex-SNP chief executive Peter Murrell is facing allegations he embezzled £459,000 from the party over more than 12 years, reports the Mail.
• “Far-Left will think they can ‘hold UK to ransom’ after PA ruling” – There are warnings that a High Court ruling against the decision to ban Palestine Action as a terror group risks encouraging further chaos from far-Left protest groups, says the Mail.
• “Moment migrant caught plotting to kill ‘as many jews as possible’ pledges allegiance to ISIS” – Shocking footage has emerged of a migrant jihadist swearing loyalty to ISIS just before he and his partner got sentenced to 63 years for plotting what police called Britain’s potential worst-ever terror attack on Jewish sites, reports the Mail.
• “Why was Jim Ratcliffe punished for speaking the truth?” – Sir Jim Ratcliffe has taken a hammering simply for voicing what loads of everyday Brits feel about Britain’s borders and mass immigration, says Brendan O’Neill in the Spectator.
• “Jim Ratcliffe has a point about Britain” – Love the phrasing or not, Jim Ratcliffe has nailed something many people sense – that Britain is being transformed through large-scale immigration, writes Ross Clark in the Spectator.
• “Labour’s lurch Left could wreck immigration crackdown” – Keir Starmer’s immigration crackdown is under threat from Labour MPs demanding he lurches to the Left to save his premiership, reports the Mail.
• “Meet the Green Party councillor taking her young grandchildren to deliver Valentine’s cards to young male asylum seekers” – In the Mail, Nick Pisa reports on a Green Party councillor who has announced she’ll be bringing her little grandchildren along to hand out Valentine’s cards to young male asylum seekers at a nearby camp.
• “Greens’ bizarre election video shows Polanski weeping over greyhounds” – Green leader Zack Polanski and the party’s Gorton and Denton by-election candidate Hannah Spencer broke down in tears as they talked about dogs in a bizarre campaign podcast, according to the Mail.
• “Government is set to ban people from vaping in their own cars if children are present” – The Government is gearing up to outlaw vaping in private cars when kids are inside – and the rules will hit pubs, offices and public transport too, reports the Mail.
• “Push for resignation of ‘anti-Israel UN official’, peers urge Cooper” – Over 40 peers have written to the Foreign Secretary demanding UN rapporteur Francesca Albanese resigns after she called Israel “the common enemy of humanity”, says the Telegraph.
• “South American gangs are raiding UK jewellers with ‘military precision’” – Organised South American crews have already nicked over £2 million from UK jewellers this year with slick military-style hits before jetting out in under 48 hours, warns an ex-Flying Squad detective in the Mail.
• “Starmer: Britain’s Brexit years are over” – Sir Keir Starmer will claim the UK is no longer “the Britain of the Brexit years” when he addresses world leaders in Munich, according to the Sun.
• “Trump warned Europe it needed to defend itself. Only half of the Continent listened” – Twelve months on from Trump’s blunt call for Europe to pull its weight on defence, eastern nations have stepped up while many western ones are still lagging badly, writes David Blair in the Telegraph.
• “Putin could defeat Nato with just 15,000 troops, experts warn” – Defence analysts in Europe have warned that Russia could potentially smash through Nato defences using only about 15,000 crack troops, says the Mail.
• “Doctor at Jeffrey Epstein’s post mortem says the paedophile was strangled and not hanged” – In the Mail, a forensic pathologist who observed Jeffrey Epstein’s autopsy insists the death looks more like strangulation than suicide and warrants a proper reinvestigation.
• “Canada shooter targeted school ‘to finish off his family’” – Close contacts of the Canadian school shooter have told investigators he may have headed to the school specifically to target and kill his younger siblings, reports the NY Post.
• “Why was Canada so afraid of misgendering a trans shooter?” – Canadian officials and press seem more hung up on getting pronouns right for trans shooter Jesse Van Rootselaar than on just reporting the awful facts, says Jane Stannus in the Spectator.
• “Kim Jong Un’s mystery daughter who was once cradled by Dennis Rodman” – In the Mail, Olivia Allhusen profiles Kim Jong Un’s daughter Ju Ae, now a teenager, who has started appearing front and centre at missile tests, parades and big state occasions.
• “Met Office warns of Arctic blast with four inches of snow on the way” – The Met Office is warning of a sharp cold snap bringing up to four inches of snow across swathes of the UK, reports the Mail.
• “Scientists are baffled to discover 3,100 glaciers surging” – While everyone’s talking about shrinking ice, scientists have stumbled across 3,100 glaciers that are actually surging ahead instead of retreating, says the Mail.
• “Trump reverses ‘giant scam’ Obama-era ruling that determines climate change policies” – Donald Trump has just scrapped what he calls Obama’s massive climate scam – the 2009 Endangerment Finding – and reckons it’ll slash car prices by thousands, according to the Mail.
• “Obama whines on internet after watching Trump kill his climate legacy” – Barack Obama has fired back at Trump for ditching his old Endangerment Finding, claiming it seriously weakens the fight against climate change, reports the Daily Caller.
• “Trump’s America isn’t the outlier on greenhouse gases” – Obama’s Endangerment Finding does not appear to have had any obvious impact on US emissions, notes Ross Clark in the Spectator.
• “Republican AGs demand DOJ investigate overseas funding behind 150 climate groups” – Republican state AGs have called on the DOJ to probe nearly $2 billion in overseas cash pouring into American climate nonprofits and look for possible foreign agent law violations, reports Fox News.
• “Fury as Labour trans policy allows pupils to swap gender” – Parents and education heavyweights are furious over Labour’s new school guidance that could let primary kids socially transition without parents being told, says the Mail.
• “Labour has watered down guidance on child transition” – The Government has seriously softened its draft rules on how schools handle kids wanting to socially transition, warns Lara Brown in the Spectator.
• “Bosses can ban trans women from female toilets” – Employers have been given the legal green light to keep biological men out of female toilets and changing rooms if they want to, confirms the Telegraph.
• “Disability charity sacks worker over his disability” – A disability charity has been ordered to pay more than £150,000 to a worker with Long Covid and Crohn’s disease who it discriminated against – due to his disability, reports the Mail.
• “Church of England abandons proposals for same-sex blessing ceremonies” – After endless debate the Church of England has quietly dropped plans for official same-sex blessing services, according to the BBC.
• “To understand pure stupidity, watch the News Agents” – For a masterclass in confused, smug analysis masquerading as insight, you really can’t beat a quick watch of the News Agents, says Rod Liddle in the Spectator.
• “My friend should not have lost his job over after-dinner speech” – In the Telegraph, Sir Geoffrey Boycott defends his friend Phillip Hodson, whose world has been turned upside down after he was axed from his role as deputy chair of Yorkshire cricket over some after-dinner jokes.
• “Wuthering Heights is whitewashing Heathcliff, claim Gen Z fans” – The casting of a white Australian actor as Heathcliff in a new movie adaptation of Wuthering Heights has drawn the ire of the wokerati, says Lara Wildenberg in the Times.
• “Peppa Pig show bans sausage rolls to ‘be considerate’” – A venue putting on a Peppa Pig live show has decided to axe sausage rolls entirely so everyone feels included, reports the Sun.

If you have any tips for inclusion in the round-up, email us here.