News Round-Up

• “Boris Johnson facing second ‘partygate’ fine over aide’s leaving event” – The Prime Minister faces a second fine for a gathering for outgoing Director of Communications Lee Cain, where he made a speech and is understood to have remained for some time, according to the Telegraph.
• “Boris’s real failure wasn’t breaking lockdown” – It was creating the rules in the first place, says Ross Clark in the Spectator.
• “There is a certain poetic justice to the Partygate fines” – Partygate has united two groups previously at loggerheads in a common chorus of disgust, says Lord Sumption in the Telegraph.
• “Daily Covid cases plunge 30% in a week and hospital admissions come down by 8% but deaths more than double due to data backlog issue” – The Mail reports on the continued decline in reported infections but also an unexpected spike in deaths, caused by a backlog.
• “‘Substantial’ fall in GP hours with half now only working ‘three days a week’” – A study, commissioned by the Department of Health, shows 58.4% of family doctors were working six half-day sessions or less, the Telegraph reports.
• “WHO’s INB First Meeting and Session” – The Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB), a newly constituted subdivision of the World Health Assembly (WHA), is on a mission to draft and negotiate an international instrument for pandemic mitigation, readiness, and response, reports TrialSite News.
• “My video call with the WHO this morning” – Dr. Tess Lawrie reports on the sham of a “public participation process” organised by the WHO this week and expresses concern that “the WHO now intends to take full control over every member nation via this pandemic treaty”.
• “Greece to scrap mask rules and Covid passports in time for summer holidays” – Greek authorities have confirmed that domestic Covid passports will be scrapped and mask rules relaxed in time for the peak summer holiday season, reports the Telegraph, as the Science helpfully shifts to rescue the economy.
• “The battle for Zero-Covid is being fought in Shanghai” – Complete ‘victory’ over the virus has become a key part of the cult of Xi, says Ian Williams in the Spectator.
• “Hospitals, not GPs, are at the heart of NHS failure” – GP services are in fact delivering more appointments than prior to the pandemic, but the same cannot be said for hospital occupancy, says Katie Musgrave in the Telegraph.
• “Vaccines’ effects on the heart” – With the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines being delivered to growing numbers of young people, researchers are looking again at the rare risk of myocarditis, writes Clare Wilson in the New Scientist.
• “Don’t ditch that face mask. Mandate for planes extended through May 3rd” – The U.S. federal transportation mask mandate, due to expire April 18th, will be extended through May 3rd, reports USA Today.
• “Cutting off Russian gas to cost Germany €220bn and trigger European recession” – Europe’s biggest economy would suffer a 6.5% contraction if Russian energy is suspended, experts warn, according to the Telegraph.
• “Judge praises ‘inspiring’ Insulate Britain mob who delayed ambulance” – Mail report that Judge Stephen Leake fined a group of M25 activists but said he was “inspired” by them and that their “voices are certainly heard”, raising questions of impartiality.
• “Ex-Brexit minister Lord Frost warns U.K. could end up rationing energy” – Lord Frost tore into the Prime Minister’s energy security strategy, published last week, which put offshore wind and nuclear power at the centre of U.K. energy policy, the Mail reports.
• “Disruptive eco-protesters harm their cause” – Militants who block roads and glue themselves to buildings will only harden voters’ hearts, like the unions did in the 1970s, writes Libby Purves in the Times.
• “‘Colston Four’ statue-toppling case to be reviewed by Court of Appeal” – Writing for the Telegraph, the Attorney General says the right to protest should not be a licence to commit criminal damage.
• “Nottingham university’s shameful treatment of Tony Sewell” – An accomplished black Brit is lambasted for having an opinion, and the high-status move is to side with his critics – this is modern racial politics summed up, writes Tom Slater in the Spectator.
• “Why My NYT Article Inspired So Much Fury” – We have lost a cultural appreciation for free speech and free expression, says Emma Camp in Persuasion.
• “Monsoon’s female changing rooms are ‘open to both sexes’” – Mail report that Monsoon apologised to 18 year-old Charlie Moore following an incident at its Grand Central, Birmingham, store and said its changing rooms are “open and available to all customers” – which probably reassured Charlie, but many women less so.
• “The shameful silence surrounding David Amess’s murder” – MPs, tasked with responding to this outrage, decided it was time to regulate the “corrosive space” of social media to make sure people in public life “can no longer be vilified”. What exactly does that have to do with this MP’s brutal murder at the hands of an Islamist, asks Sam Ashworth-Hayes in the Spectator.
• “We need to give him our support at this critical time, difficult though it is. Better the devil we know” – Watch Toby tell Dan Wootton on GB News that the public should not oust Boris Johnson after he was given a fixed penalty notice by the police.

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