News Round-Up
- “Trump announces two-week ceasefire as deadline nears” – Donald Trump has announced a two-week ceasefire between the US and Iran, bringing a pause to their 39-day war, according to the Telegraph.
- “Wireless Festival is canceled as Kanye West is blocked from UK” – Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has banned Kanye West from entering Britain on the grounds his presence would “not be conducive to the public good”, says the Mail.
- “Rayner’s workers’ rights police get power to force their way into offices” – Angela Rayner’s new workers’ rights inspectors have been given sweeping powers to force entry into businesses, seize documents and even make arrests, reveals the Telegraph.
- “25,000 factory jobs ‘at risk’ from Reeves’s business rates blow” – Rachel Reeves’s business rates hike has left Britain’s manufacturing sector facing a £1 billion hit and put up to 25,000 factory jobs at risk, reports the Telegraph.
- “Labour has killed the restaurant industry” – The co-founder of Leon has told Times Radio that Labour is destroying the restaurant industry through its tax policies and red tape.
- “Iceland offers job to Waitrose worker whose sacking for tackling Easter egg shoplifter sparked outrage” – Iceland has stepped in to offer a job to the long-serving Waitrose employee sacked after trying to stop an Easter egg thief, according to the Mail.
- “Broken Britain” – Waitrose’s decision to sack an employee who tried to stop a shoplifter symbolises everything wrong with Broken Britain, writes Allison Pearson in the Telegraph.
- “The Left don’t want to talk about the real reason for teenage crime” – Academics have told the Guardian that we wouldn’t see Clapham-style mayhem if there were more youth clubs. Seriously? says Michael Deacon in the Telegraph.
- “Rory Stewart isn’t taking Islam seriously” – Rory Stewart’s attack on those critical of Islam hinges on exactly the sort of parochial ignorance that he accuses others of, notes Jimmy Nicholls in the Spectator.
- “BMA offers its staff half of pay rise it demanded for striking doctors” – The BMA has offered its own staff only half the pay rise it is demanding for junior doctors, reports the Telegraph.
- “Striking doctors cost NHS £3 billion” – Doctors’ strikes have now cost the NHS around £3 billion in total, reveals the Standard.
- “Why junior doctors are back on strike” – In the Spectator, Druin Burch breaks down the latest costly, messy and avoidable round of junior doctor strikes.
- “The wheels are coming off Wes’s grand plan” – Wes Streeting’s ambitious NHS reform plan appears to be running into serious trouble, report Prof Carl Heneghan and Dr Tom Jefferson on the Trust the Evidence Substack.
- “It is time we banned strikes by doctors” – Doctors deserve to be well rewarded but they should never go on strike, argues David Green in the Telegraph.
- “Streeting refuses to rule out banning doctors’ strikes” – The Health Secretary has admitted outlawing industrial action is an “option” as medics stage their 15th walkout in three years, reports the Telegraph.
- “Tories to ban councils from working a four-day week” – The Tories have pledged to ban councils from letting staff work a four-day week on full pay if they win the next election, according to LBC.
- “City raises the alarm over damaging new Brussels rules” – The City of London has warned that new Brussels rules could seriously damage its ability to serve European clients, reports the Telegraph.
- “The Greens’ 55mph motorway speed limit is an insult to us all” – Forcing drivers into a slow stupor isn’t a safety measure – it’s an eco-puritanical crusade designed to make ordinary Britons more miserable, fumes Rowan Pelling in the Telegraph.
- “Rollout of 20mph zones blamed for number of drivers getting points on their licences to almost a million” – The rapid rollout of 20mph zones has been blamed for pushing the number of drivers receiving penalty points on their licences close to a million, according to the Mail.
- “Scottish Green candidates call for prisons to be abolished” – A Scottish Green candidate on course to become an MSP in May’s Holyrood election wants to close all the country’s prisons and replace jail time with community sentences, says the Mail.
- “Scottish Greens propose new tax on ‘elitist’ private schools” – Private schools in Scotland could be hit with a new tax under proposals put forward by the Scottish Greens ahead of next month’s general election, reports the Telegraph.
- “HMS Dragon forced to dock in latest embarrassment for Royal Navy” – HMS Dragon, the Royal Navy’s only warship in the Iran conflict zone, has been forced back to port with technical problems, says the Mail.
- “JD Vance accuses ‘corrupt’ Brussels of manipulating European elections” – J.D. Vance has accused “corrupt millionaire” bureaucrats in Brussels of trying to manipulate European elections and urged Hungarians to re-elect Viktor Orbán, reports the Telegraph.
- “‘A whole civilisation will die tonight’ if Iran does not reach a deal to open the Strait of Hormuz” – On Substack, Eugyppius reacts to Trump’s recent diplomatic efforts with Iran.
- “Iran’s new Supreme Leader is ‘unconscious’ and unable to run country” – An assessment understood to be based on American and Israeli intelligence says Mojtaba Khamenei is being treated for a “severe” medical condition in the religious city of Qom, according to the Mail.
- “Australia’s most highly decorated living soldier Ben Roberts-Smith is charged with war crimes” – Australia’s most decorated living soldier ex-SAS Ben Roberts-Smith has been charged with five war crime murders, reports the Mail.
- “The dramatic downfall of an Australian war hero” – Ben Roberts-Smith faces the real possibility that he will become Australia’s most decorated life prisoner, writes Terry Barnes in the Spectator.
- “Kathleen Stock on the case against assisted death” – On the Good Fight podcast, Yascha Mounk and Kathleen Stock discuss whether liberal arguments for medically assisted suicide fail to hold up under scrutiny.
- “Rachel Reeves accused of blocking £17.5 billion North Sea investment” – Rachel Reeves has been blasted for blocking £17.5 billion of North Sea investment by refusing to scrap the windfall tax on oil and gas firms, reports the Times.
- “Electric car sales hit record high as petrol prices soar” – Electric vehicle sales have surged to a new record as soaring petrol prices, fuelled by the Iran conflict, push drivers towards EVs, says London Business News.
- “A warning about EVs to independent vehicle smash repair shops” – Independent vehicle smash repair shops face crippling hidden dangers and costs when dealing with electric vehicles, warns Eric Worrall in Watts Up With That?
- “WESA is wrong, sneezing and watering eyes aren’t climate change indicators” – Claims that sneezing and watery eyes are becoming worse because of climate change are firmly debunked by Anthony Watts over at Climate Realism.
- “What Norway can teach Mad Ed about gas” – Norway’s approach to gas has offered a timely lesson for Ed Miliband, says Catherine McBride in the Conservative Woman.
- “Italy ready to restart coal-fired plants” – Italy has signalled it is ready to fire up its remaining coal plants and delay its full coal phase-out to avoid energy shortages, reports Power Magazine.
- “Reform is right to put its foot down over reparations” – Reparations are not a liberal idea, says Stephen Daisley in the Spectator. The forces unleashed by such a policy would be profoundly illiberal.
- “Scott Mills faces latest blow as BBC ‘wipes his Top Of The Pops episodes from its archives’” – The BBC has reportedly wiped Scott Mills’s Top Of The Pops episodes and removed his plaque following his recent sacking, according to the Mail.
- “Over 40% of FSU cases tackle gender-critical discrimination” – A veteran NHS nurse nearly stripped of her honorary Queen’s Nurse title over gender-critical views shares how the Free Speech Union stepped in – forcing a climbdown, apology and the exposure of a malicious complaint.
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.
“The wheels are coming off Wes’s grand plan”
My mole in the NHS tells me that Wes’ plans are not all that the wheels are coming off… the number of services in our local trust that are about to fall over because they are no longer funded is huge.
Try and stay healthy, the alternative looks grim.
“Rollout of 20mph zones blamed for number of drivers getting points on their licences to almost a million”
If this figure is correct, then number who are opting to do the ‘safety’ course instead of taking the points, must be even larger… at £70 a pop, somebody’s making bank.
I’m sure it’s not about money-making… 🤔
On the other side of the coin, some local authorities have picked up the tab for removing 20 limits, and reverting to the traditional 30 on some routes, such as this one done by Swansea City Council. Alright, they would normally spend a bit on resurfacing jobs and other minor jobs towards the end of the fiscal year, but they have spent a bit more replacing the signs and painting new ones on the surface etc.
Not sure, but I guess there have been some local efforts to persuade them to do that.
So, threatening Iran with a nuclear attack, was an amazingly clever bit of ‘negotiation’ then? Really? And what will the net outcome be? More distrust, more global unrest, an incentive for countries like Iran to build nuclear arms to defend themselves, more conflict on our streets, more social division, more supply chains choked, a greater incentive for migration from the middle east, less money in our pocket and pension. A greater need for a One World Government. Don’t listen to what Trump says, look at what he achieves.
Or not really, depending on your insight to the usual suspects behaviour. Yesterday, an intelligent journalist compared Trump with some other past US presidents, when it comes to the use of language. What he says, and what he does, are not necessarily the same.
If you have a look at this new article, it seems it was all Netanyahu’s idea, as previously suspected…
What Trump’s inner circle really thought of plan to go to war with Iran: CIA ‘dismissed regime-change plan as “farcical”. JD Vance said “it’s a bad idea”. But Donald went with his instinct’ | Daily Mail Online
Yes, former Trump administration guy said the same on Unherd podcast. But you have to wonder why the US, or maybe just POTUS, is so beholden to Israel? The thing is, you can’t (or I can’t) write off all his elitist missions as being bad advice or being under pressure. He’s too brash and egotistical to be a mere stooge for someone.
Awkward Epstein Files, maybe? Who knows?
An impressive study from Finland followed transgender people for 25 years to see if their mental health improved after transitioning.
The findings are stark:
Feminising procedures: psychiatric morbidity rose from 9.8% to 60.7%.
Masculinising procedures: from 21.6% to 54.5%.
Striking doctors cost the Enaitchess £3bn… so less than 2% of what it costs us a year?
As per, a lot of propaganda being pumped out by the Regime in Iran. Trump is unlikely to agree to this list. This person is in Iran and translating from farsi what’s being put out on their news channels; ”The absolute circus playing out between Washington, the Western media, and our captors would be hilarious if it wasn’t paid for with our blood. Now we hear the horrifying claim that Donald Trump actually looked at the regime’s demands and called them “a workable basis on which to negotiate!” Let’s look at the absolute, hallucinatory extortion the Supreme National Security Council is broadcasting to pacify their terrified foot soldiers, claiming the US lost the war and accepted these terms: 1. The US guarantees zero future attacks. 2. A permanent end to the war. 3. Ending all Israeli strikes on Lebanon. 4. Lifting every single US sanction from the Bush era to today. 5. Ending all regional fighting against their proxy allies. 6. Reopening the Strait of Hormuz by extorting a $2 million “toll” per ship. 7. Splitting this mafia extortion money with Oman. 8. Letting the regime dictate safe passage (ships only pass with regime escorts). 9. Using this global ransom… Read more »
”Iran, you deluded pack of medieval f*cking fanatics….you are not the victors here. Not by any metric of blood, steel, strategy, or sanity. Not even close. Your so-called “historic victory” and that laughable ten-point fantasy cooked up by your Supreme National Security Council is nothing but regime-grade copium, a desperate hallucinogen for a leadership that knows its house of cards is one precision strike away from collapsing into pink mist and irradiated rubble. You didn’t force America or Israel into shit. You blinked. You always blink. Your proxies are gutted…Hezbollah reduced to a smoking crater in southern Lebanon, the Houthis learning what real naval interdiction looks like when the U.S. Fifth Fleet stops playing nice, and your own IRGC clowns getting turned into vapor every time they poke their heads above ground. The Strait of Hormuz? Cute. You think a few speedboats and mines make you masters of global energy? One carrier strike group and a squadron of F-35s with JDAMs will remind you that chokepoints work both ways…your oil terminals burn just as bright as anyone else’s, and your economy is already a corpse on life support from sanctions you can’t wish away with propaganda hashtags. Psychologically, this is… Read more »
Let us all boycott Waitrose.
It will come as no hardship and will save you money, as well as making a point.
I thought the doctors were demanding more than ten times the £2.75 that the BMA have offered their own staff.
“Australia’s most highly decorated living soldier Ben Roberts-Smith is charged with war crimes” – “Australia’s most decorated living soldier ex-SAS Ben Roberts-Smith has been charged with five war crime murders” “The dramatic downfall of an Australian war hero” It seems to me that the only real “crime” of which he is guilty is having an affair with a married woman because his own wife was ignoring him and had lost interest in sex, as many married women do after their children leave the nest, even though they still love their husbands. He even told his married mistress that he loved his wife, and then when he later broke off with the mistress, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” erupted, with the mistress harassing the wife until now both wife and mistress are bent on revenge and testifying against him to put him in prison for life as punishment for committing adultery. The “war crimes” Lawfare is just another Satanic Globalist method for driving all White Men out of the Armed Forces of the West. No one in the media seems interested in asking the mistress’ husband for his views, and his adulterous wife is presented as some kind of “victim”… Read more »
A shocking update on this has been provided by a British Army veteran, who said: “Nothing says ‘We Support Our Troops’ quite like hunting down the hardest men you sent into the worst s***hole on earth, after the politicians who ordered them there have long since washed their hands and moved on to book deals and speaking tours.” “And get this: the Australian government didn’t just sit back and wait for evidence. No, they actively went out and PAID for it. They put up BILLBOARDS in Afghanistan OFFERING CASH REWARDS to random Afghans to come forward with war crime allegations against Australian soldiers!!! I mean, what country on earth does that to itself?” “Imagine Britain putting up billboards in Helmand saying, ‘Got a grudge against a Squaddie? Ring this number and name your price.’ Or America doing it in Falujah.” “It’s not just this, it’s a National Suicide Note, folks, written in Taxpayer Money and delivered with a self-flagellating grin. So tell me, when does the Taliban plan on holding war crimes tribunals against their own people? When are those bearded savages going to line up their suicide bombers, their child rapists, their throat-slitting enthusiasts, and hold themselves accountable for… Read more »
“Trump announces two-week ceasefire as deadline nears”
So from the article below, it seems the whole thing was religious after all: Netanyahu persuading Trump to use the American Armed Forces to destroy one “AMALEK” (Iran), while Nettie used the Israeli Armed Forces to destroy another “AMALEK” (Lebanon).
What Trump’s inner circle really thought of plan to go to war with Iran: CIA ‘dismissed regime-change plan as “farcical”. JD Vance said “it’s a bad idea”. But Donald went with his instinct’ | Daily Mail Online
“Within Trump’s inner circle, ONLY VICE PRESIDENT JD VANCE consistently and forcefully opposed the push toward conflict.”
“Having built his political identity on resisting foreign military interventions, Vance warned colleagues that a war with Iran could spiral into catastrophe.”
Islamabad involvement in the Trump “ceasefire” negotiations.
Interesting to see that Pakistan seems to have a role in the “ceasefire” negotiations between the Trump administration and Iran. Reminded me of a business trip I made to Karachi back in 2007. A while back, I published an extract of it on my YT channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLSaj-dsMRE Gives you an insight into what some of was like then.
A fair bit of the old rolling stock was English Electric, with the more modern types being American.
The optical quality was just standard definition shot on an old camera (didn’t want to spend too much over there).
My route (and that of colleagues) was London H to Karachi via Dubai (using Emirates) and vice versa.
May I add this shocking example of why the Apostle Paul was right to say that women should not be preachers:
Christian pastor charged with killing man, 61, who drowned in back garden baptism ceremony