News Round-Up

• “Is Labour trying to cover up the full horror of the grooming gangs scandal?” – Why has the Ministry of Justice just ordered the deletion of millions of court case records? wonders Katie Lam in the Telegraph.
• “Labour is quietly letting the Boriswave become permanent” – If the PM buckles on migration now, he will be reopening the very floodgates his government claimed to have shut, warns Emma Schubart in the Telegraph.
• “Chagos deal architect ‘considers No 10 exit’” – Sir Keir Starmer’s National Security Adviser, Jonathan Powell, is thought to be weighing up plans to leave Downing Street in yet another blow for the beleaguered PM, says GB News.
• “Stuttering Starmer knows he’s finished and next week it’s all over” – Our pitiful Prime Minister faces a day of reckoning on February 26th, warns Giles Sheldrick in the Express.
• “Labour’s sleazeocracy” – Keir Starmer’s party has been mired in scandals that show it thinks it can do no wrong, says Brendan O’Neill in Spiked.
• “Labour leadership contender Andy Burnham hatches new plan to become MP” – Andy Burnham is looking for another route back to Westminster after being prevented from standing in Gorton and Denton, reports the Mail.
• “Ed Miliband plots pact with Green Party leader who says ‘the age of Nato is now over’” – Ed Miliband could run for Labour leader on a “unite the Left” ticket with the Green Party – which has been accused of cosying up to Moscow, according to the Mail.
• “How Green candidate tried to justify party leader’s claim he could make breasts grow via hypnosis” – The Green candidate in the Gorton and Denton by-election has tried to defend Zack Polanski’s claim that he could enlarge women’s breasts by hypnotising them, reveals the Mail.
• “Rupert Lowe and Ben Habib, your time is now” – In TCW, Kathy Gyngell argues that Rupert Lowe and Ben Habib now have a rare political opening they would be foolish to miss.
• “Labour’s radical election boundaries redraw to favour the left” – Labour is planning to redraw constituency boundaries in a way that favours Labour and penalises the Conservatives, says the Times.
• “Lammy’s jury changes will not fix backlog, warns chief barrister” – The Bar Council’s new Chair says David Lammy’s jury shake-up won’t clear the mounting court backlog, according to the Telegraph.
• “Why British Jews no longer trust the criminal justice system” – The Crown Prosecution Service has no data on prosecution or conviction rates for antisemitic crimes, notes David Toube in the Jewish Chronicle. When an organisation cannot scope a problem, it cannot address it.
• “Police officer sacked for striking violent suspect as he resisted arrest” – A police sergeant with an untarnished 20-year record has been given the sack after he wrestled a violent suspect to the ground and struck the man three times in a desperate bid to stop him escaping, reports the Mail.
• “How getting a taxi became so unsafe” – Safety concerns have put taxi and private hire rules under the spotlight, says Heather Main in the Telegraph.
• “Andrew leaked secrets and met Chinese model at secret dinner as Epstein boasted ‘I’ve got the UK sewn up’” – A damning dossier claims Prince Andrew used his official status as a trade envoy to further Jeffrey Epstein’s interests, according to the Mail.
• “Pressure mounts on King’s brother to face full police probe into evidence he exploited trade envoy role to help paedophile Jeffrey Epstein” – Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is “not above the law”, the UK’s chief prosecutor has said amid a growing clamour for the disgraced royal to face a police investigation over his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, says the Mail.
• “Epstein files list including hundreds of celebrities is released” – The Trump administration has begun releasing a vast trove of Epstein files, fuelling fresh questions about who knew what and when, reports the Mail.
• “Young people are being priced out of jobs due to minimum wage hikes, warns Bank of England official” – A senior Bank of England figure has warned that higher minimum wages are making it harder for young people to find work, says the Mail.
• “Thousands of first-time buyers pay £5,000 stamp duty in past year” – More than 13,000 first-time buyers have found themselves paying more than £5,000 in stamp duty over the past year, reports This is Money.
• “Fears for free speech as crackdown on Slapps is shelved” – Ministers have ignored free-speech campaigners and shelved a crackdown on the use of lawfare to bully and gag publishers, says the Times.
• “How Spain’s amnesty on illegal migrants could unleash an influx to Britain” – Spain’s migrant amnesty has raised fears it will act as a pull factor for Britain too, reports Sue Reid in the Mail.
• “Conservative activist dies after ‘being beaten by masked far-Left mob’ in France” – Marine Le Pen has called the death of a conservative activist a “lynching” after he was beaten to death by far-Left thugs during a protest in France, reports GB News.
• “In which Marco Rubio receives a standing ovation from the Eurotards for his speech attacking mass migration, ‘the climate cult’ and liberal universalism” – On Substack, Eugyppius reacts to Marco Rubio’s blackbuster speech at the Munich Security Conference.
• “Starmer accused of failing to stop Palestinians handing salaries to terrorists” – Sir Keir Starmer has been slammed for letting Palestinian officials keep paying terrorists, reports the Telegraph.
• “The unlikely Hezbollah alliance that heralds a new era of terrorism” – Israel has kicked off raids in southern Syria and Lebanon after spotting Hezbollah-linked forces on the move, writes Henry Bodkin in the Telegraph.
• “North Korea faces brutal succession battle between Kim Jong Un’s daughter and sister, official warns” – North Korea could face a brutal power struggle in the event of Kim Jong Un’s death involving his daughter and sister, reveals the Mail.
• “Expert who helped convict Lucy Letby misdiagnosed boy’s brain tumour” – The chief expert witness for the prosecution of Lucy Letby diagnosed an eight year-old boy as “bulimic” when he was actually suffering from a brain tumour, reports the Mail.
• “Measles could force unvaccinated children into three-week isolation” – Officials warn that a measles spike could put unvaccinated kids into a three-week lockdown, according to the Telegraph.
• “Why did Fauci fund DARPA DEFUSE? His book has answers” – Fauci’s memoirs have spilled the beans on DEFUSE funding, reveals Jim Haslam on Substack.
• “Ultra-processed foods in early childhood linked to lower IQ scores” – Research has found that toddlers munching too many processed snacks could end up with lower IQs later, according to PsyPost.
• “She was earning £65,000 before AI came along. What happened next is a warning to us all” – A graphic designer has seen her pay plunge from £65,000 to just £26,000 thanks to AI, says Eir Nolsøe in the Telegraph.
• “The departure” – On Substack, Shanaka Anslem Perera breaks down how AI has come on in leaps and bounds in the last few months, becoming less and less safe in the process.
• “Social media ban for under-16s could be in force this year” – The Government is rolling out plans to curb kids’ screen time with curfews and scrolling limits, says the BBC.
• “Starmer surrenders to Brussels” – Sir Keir Starmer has drawn up plans to ramp up UK Net Zero targets and hand over control of energy policy to Brussels in a bid to tighten ties with the EU, reports the Mail.
• “AR7a results expose Government lies” – The latest AR7a results suggest ministers have not been straight about the real cost of Net Zero, says David Turver on his Eigen Values Substack.
• “Trans doctor in Sandie Peggie case quits NHS” – Dr Beth Upton, the trans doctor at the heart of the Sandie Peggie case, has quit after NHS Fife spent £400,000 in an unsuccessful attempt to defend its policy on shared changing rooms, reports GB News.
• “Bank of England says ‘genderfluid’ male staff can wear eyeshadow and high heels to the office in new dress code” – The Bank of England has relaxed its dress code, allowing male staff to dress and wear make-up, says the Mail.
• “Teachers ‘should not let pre-pubescent children transition’” – Baroness Hilary Cass warns that social media platforms like Instagram are fuelling gender confusion among children, according to the Mail.
• “Disappearance of biological sex in research ‘is like Stalin-era purge’” – A top academic has slammed how researchers are quietly dropping biological sex as a category, says the Times.
• “Tennis is racist, misogynistic and homophobic, says Australian player” – Destanee Aiava has announced her retirement from tennis at 25, saying it has a “racist, misogynistic, homophobic and hostile” culture, according to the BBC.
• “British Museum under pressure to return Benin Bronzes after top UK university agrees deal to transfer more than 100 African artefacts” – The British Museum is under pressure to return some of its most controversial artefacts after Cambridge University made the decision to give back more than 100 artefacts to Nigeria, reports GB News.
• “Disney’s staggering nine-figure loss laid bare after its woke Snow White movie with Rachel Zegler flopped spectacularly” – Disney’s live-action woke rebrand of Snow White has cost the company a staggering $170 million, reveals the Mail.
• “Right-wing liberalism” – On Substack, Spiff explores how even today’s conservatives have kept liberal assumptions firmly in place.
• “What is evil?” On Substack, Laura Dodsworth explores what evil really means and how it shows up in today’s world.
• “Executing justice” – In the New English Review, Theodore Dalrymple wrestles with the death penalty.
• “Dream state: teaching in the English culture war” – On Substack, Paul Sutton shares his eye-opening experience battling the culture wars in English classrooms.
• “Aliens are real” – Obama has confirmed aliens exist but insists Area 51 isn’t hiding any, according to Time.
• “Islamophobia laws are being drawn up by people with connections to Islamists” – On GB News, Alex Armstrong reacts to the Free Speech Union’s explosive claim that the Government’s forthcoming definition of ‘anti-Muslim hostility’ has been cooked up by people linked to Islamists.

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