News Round-Up
- “NHS doctor charged with inviting support for Hamas” – An NHS doctor has been charged after allegedly inviting support for Hamas in breach of bail conditions and now faces court proceedings, reports the Telegraph.
- “Afghan asylum seeker who abducted, raped and sexually assaulted 12 year-old girl just four months after arriving in UK on small boat is jailed for 15 years” – An Afghan asylum seeker has been jailed for 15 years after abducting and raping a 12 year-old girl in a case that has sparked outrage and allegations of a cover-up, reports the Mail.
- “The Nottingham killings have exposed a broken Britain” – The state has enabled Valdo Calocane’s crimes and then abandoned victims and their families in a damning indictment of systemic failure, says Lisa McKenzie in Spiked.
- “J.D. Vance in tense call with Benjamin Netanyahu as he rips Israel’s PM for selling ‘easy’ Iran war to Trump” – J.D. Vance has confronted Benjamin Netanyahu in a tense call over claims the Iran war was mis-sold as straightforward to Donald Trump, reports the Mail.
- “Cabinet minister heckled on visit to Golders Green” – A Cabinet Minister has faced heckling and demands to ban the IRGC during a tense visit to north London, according to the Telegraph.
- “Sue Gray criticises MPs for trying to force through assisted dying bill” – Sue Gray has criticised MPs for attempting to rush assisted dying legislation through Parliament in a controversial push, reports the Telegraph.
- “Labour risks ‘banning’ Saturday jobs, warns M&S” – Marks & Spencer has warned Labour that proposed workers’ rights reforms threaten to destroy Saturday jobs for young people, notes the Telegraph.
- “Asda boss: Labour’s profiteering claims have ‘zero credibility’” – Asda’s chief has dismissed Labour’s accusations of profiteering as baseless and a waste of time amid rising political tensions, says the Telegraph.
- “Green activists called Jews ‘abominations’ in leaked WhatsApp chat” – Green activists have been exposed making antisemitic remarks in leaked messages that have intensified scrutiny of the party, reveals the Telegraph.
- “New police probe into McSweeney phone theft” – Police have launched a fresh investigation into the theft of Morgan McSweeney’s phone using CCTV evidence amid concerns of a coverup, reports the Telegraph.
- “Police probe into ‘family voting’ in Gorton and Denton by-election finds ‘no evidence’ of law breaches after Reform UK’s complaint of ‘cheating’” – Police have found no evidence of electoral law breaches following allegations of ‘family voting’ during the by-election contest, reports the Mail.
- “Matthew Wright asked me on his radio show for ‘balance’. Then called me racist” – In the Telegraph, the FSU’s Connie Shaw describes being invited onto Matthew Wright’s show to discuss Nick Timothy’s comments about mass Muslim public prayer before being labelled racist for expressing dissenting views.
- “Anger as Sadiq Khan gives Notting Hill Carnival an extra £4.6 million that Tories say could have kept police stations open across London” – Sadiq Khan has faced backlash after allocating an extra £4.6 million to Notting Hill Carnival amid claims the money could have funded policing, reports the Mail.
- “The Church of England has abandoned the white working class” – The Church of England has neglected the white working class while focusing on progressive causes, says Camilla Tominey in the Telegraph.
- “Sarah Mullally makes me grateful to be a Catholic” – Melanie McDonagh lays into the C of E’s first female Archbishop in the Spectator.
- “The limits of bodily autonomy: concession isn’t always compassionate” – In UnHerd, Kathleen Stock skewers the bleeding heart arguments advanced in Parliament to defend late-term abortion.
- “There’s nothing merciful about Noelia Castillo’s death” – In the Spectator, Brendan O’Neill is sickened that the Spanish state would condone the assisted killing of a suicidal young rape victim.
- “Finland has shot itself in the foot in convicting Päivi Räsänen” – Julian Mann in Christian Today says Finland’s conviction of a politician over a church pamphlet on marriage will come back to bite it.
- “Israel is crafting a powerful new anti-Iran axis” – Israel has been building a growing alliance against Iran with support from unlikely partners in a shifting geopolitical landscape, says Jake Wallis Simons in the Telegraph.
- “Trump weighs new ‘pay to play’ Nato” – Donald Trump has been considering restricting Nato decision-making to members meeting higher defence spending targets, reports the Telegraph.
- “Will Nato regret snubbing Donald Trump?” – Nato has been risking long-term fracture by saying no to Donald Trump as doubts grow over US commitment to the alliance, writes Irwin Stelzer in the Spectator.
- “Draft legislation aims to criminalise ‘sexually suggestive’ photographs of fully clothed people in public because AI is scary” – Draft German legislation has sought to criminalise ‘sexually suggestive’ public images over fears about AI misuse, writes Eugyppius on Substack.
- “Tucker Carlson’s sickening praise for Sharia tyranny” – Tucker Carlson’s praise of aspects of Sharia law and his growing hatred of the West see him oddly aligning with Left-liberal talking points, says Brendan O’Neill in Spiked.
- “Renewables are cheap myth” – Roger Caiazzain in Watts Up With That addresses the myth that renewables provide the cheapest electricity.
- “No, Associated Press, this Southwest heatwave was not ‘virtually impossible’ without climate change” – Assertions from the Associated Press linking a recent Southwest heatwave to climate change are overstated and misleading, says Anthony Watts in Watts Up With That.
- “BlackRock CEO abandons climate delusion for investor needs” – BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has publicly shifted toward what he calls energy pragmatism, says Vijay Jayaraj in Watts Up With That.
- “Alberta joins solar/wind bust (uneconomic energy hits political risk)” – One of Alberta’s biggest companies is declaring a $408-million hit to the value of its wind and solar projects in the province, says WUWT.
- “Trans-owned bookshop invites customers to vandalise J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels” – A Leeds bookshop has been encouraging customers to deface Harry Potter books to raise funds for transgender causes, reports the Mail.
- “Do Steve Coogan and his luvvie friends know who are they are marching with?” – Celebrity Lefties are joining an event staged by Together Alliance, whose supporters include a group founded by an ex-Hamas commander, writes Toby in the Telegraph.
- “Is the Manosphere the symptom or the cause..?” – On Substack, Tom Ed asks if the rise of the manosphere is a symptom or driver of shifting male behaviour and social expectations.
- “Why I no longer support social media bans for teenagers” – Stella O’Malley in UnHerd is having second thoughts about a social media ban for teenagers, questioning who decides what content is harmful.
If you have any tips for inclusion in the round-up, email us here.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
Well done Stela O’Maley for discovering the most evident and obvious argument against censorship and in favour free speech.
It’s an argument that has been around, I don’t, basically for ever. And unlike most arguments it was, is and will continue to be the clinching argument in the free speech debate. The one for which there is no reply.
Not to belabour the point but it’s an argument that I encountered and understood perfectly well when I was about 10 years old.
I think you mean the “who will decide what is harmful” argument?
The answer is the same as it ever was, about pretty much everything: “We will, because we are wiser than you”.
The only thing that changes in this equation is who ‘we’ are. And, as with much of the legislation that is being pushed through at the moment, it matters only when a less benign government comes along to take advantage of it.
‘A less benign government’. Benign: ‘gentle and kindly’.
The current government is anything but benign. I don’t think it’s in the nature of governments to be benign, regardless of their stated political persuasion. Some are better than others, but best not to trust them more than absolutely necessary.
They will try to appear wise in order to get enough people onside for their suppression of free speech to be sustainable.
Does Camilla Tominey realise that the Church of England could have had gay marriage 30 years ago if this Church had jettisoned the African churches?
The C of E is one of the things of Caesar. It never had the task of representing ethnicity or class.
Trump weighs new ‘pay to play’ Nato
An excellent idea. How can Britain participate? Very straightforward; simply junk the pursuit of net zero and increase defence spending to the required amount.
‘The annual subsidy cost is currently £25.8 billion a year, a sum equivalent to nearly fifty per cent of UK annual spending on defence. Subsidy to renewable electricity generators now comprises about 40% of the total cost of electricity supply in the United Kingdom…Renewable electricity generators have now enjoyed generous financial support for over twenty years without showing any significant progress towards independent economic viability. On the contrary, the requirement for such support seems to be rising. The public is surely entitled to ask when government will bring this extraordinary and insupportable level of subsidy to an end.’ The Renewable Energy Foundation 2024′
Camilla Tominey tries to keep her cake and eat it at the same time. She welcomes the ‘installation’ of the first female archbishop. Yet Mullallah is an Archpriestess. Religions that have had priestesses have been markedly different from those that do not. Camilla worries over the decline of church marriages. Yet the C of E did not defend marriage against no fault divorce in the 1960s. The Labour regime’s indication that they will issue an apology for ‘forced adoptions’ in the decades after 1945 will really be an apology for the governments of the time trying to defend marriage. It will not even be an apology for trying to defend marriage by that method. Undoubtedly, the distress of these aged women who had teenage pregnancies 60 years ago is genuine. But they can now gain the kudos of the victim, obscuring any responsibility for their own action at the time. Today, freed from the anxiety when as a very young person they may have faced the prospect of being unable to work and look after a child, these women can heap all their guilt on the British state of the time, and all the opprobrium that was once poured on them onto their parents or society. Note especially that no one asks the boyfriends of these women what they… Read more »
“Undoubtedly, the distress of these aged women who had teenage pregnancies 60 years ago is genuine. But they can now gain the kudos of the victim, obscuring any responsibility for their own action at the time.”
Exactly.
These women feel guilty.
Undoubtedly, they acted under pressure, but the fact is that they gave up their babies.
Their babies were not physically dragged out of their hands. They had to sign papers.
Despite the pressure, not every single woman did it. Some accepted the hardship and shame that came with being an unmarried mother.
In religious terms, these women want public absolution for their sins from the state. They want the state to accept responsibility and say “it wasn’t you, it was me”.
I can’t see how this could work. It is a form of self-deception, besides – how can the government of 2026 be accountable for the actions of the fifties and sixties?
“Police probe into ‘family voting’ in Gorton and Denton by-election finds ‘no evidence’ of law breaches after Reform UK’s complaint of ‘cheating”
And who is surprised by this outcome?
Muslims could eat your babies in a police station and no action would be taken!
“Trans-owned bookshop invites customers to vandalise J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels”
I do hope no one vandalises the bookshop!🙄
Doesn’t seem a very good way to support the sale of books, which I assume would be core to ‘being a bookshop’?…
So a bookshop gets a pile of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels, which the bookshop has to pay for. Then they get ‘customers’ to come in and vandalise them, which means they can’t be sold … so what does the bookshop do with them? Put them in a pile outside and set fire to them? Where have I heard that happening previously?