- “Britain ‘warned of Russian meddling in Chagos deal’” – Government ministers were told Putin’s officials attempted to “undermine U.K. interests” by whipping up Mauritian discontent over the Chagos Islands, reports the Mail.
- “Starmer’s allies accused of briefing Tories on phone fraud storm” – The Labour Left is up in arms, claiming Keir Starmer’s allies orchestrated a “political hit job” on former Transport Secretary Louise Haigh, says the Mail.
- “Minister squirms over PM’s past claim ‘lawbreakers can’t be lawmakers’” – Senior Cabinet minister Pat McFadden was left squirming when grilled about Keir Starmer’s claim that “lawmakers can’t be lawbreakers”, which he made before appointing Louise Haigh to his top team, according to the Mail.
- “Business confidence in U.K. economy falls to lowest level since lockdown” – Optimism about the U.K. economy has plummeted to levels last seen at the start of the Covid pandemic following Rachel Reeves’ disastrous Budget, reports the Mail.
- “Starmer ‘sidelines’ flagship pledge to make Britain fastest-growing nation in G7” – Keir Starmer will “sideline” his flagship pledge to make the U.K. the fastest-growing economy in the G7 when he unveils new targets to make British people richer, says the Telegraph.
- “Keir Starmer sees ratings slump as PM eyes major ‘reset’” – An Opinium survey shows that just 22% of voters approve of Sir Keir’s performance as premier, compared to 54% who disapprove, reports the Mail.
- “Starmer will launch war on ‘Blob’ to get Whitehall to deliver his major changes” – Keir Starmer is ordering the Cabinet and the next head of the Civil Service to reform Whitehall so it can focus on his missions rather than operating like “fiefdoms”, according to the Sun.
- “The Archers’ ‘tractor tax’ bills calculated” – Telegraph analysis reveals that families who have featured in The Archers since its first episode in 1950 would face bills of up to £2.5 million under the Chancellor’s inheritance tax raid on farms.
- “BBC under fire after Archers brushes over tax raid on farmers” – BBC drama The Archers has been slammed for underplaying the Government’s tax raid on farms, reports the Mail.
- “The mass migration myth is falling apart” – Lazy assumptions that Britain needs migrant-driven population growth to thrive are being shot to pieces, says Jeremy Warner in the Telegraph.
- “Where are the calls for blasphemy laws coming from?” – Decades of failure on immigration and integration makes figures like Tahir Ali an inevitability; his recent intervention highlights a deeper sickness in British society, writes Sam Bidwell in the Critic.
- “New MPs demand a family-friendly six-hour day for parliament” – A group of new MPs have suggested that Parliament should stop sitting during the evening and hold some debates remotely to make the Commons more family-friendly, reports the Times.
- “Nigel Farage is wrong – the political centre ground hasn’t split, it’s vanished” – There can be no core consensus when the whole vocabulary of Western politics no longer makes sense to anyone, argues Janet Daley in the Telegraph.
- “Labour leaves door open to loophole that could send Elgin Marbles back to Greece” – Labour could use a loophole in the Charities Act 2022 to return the Elgin Marbles to Greece, exploiting a clause that lets museums offload artefacts if there’s a “moral obligation” to do so, reports the Telegraph.
- “Smithfield Market: chefs bemoan the coming closure of one of London’s only 24-hour operations” – One of the city’s famed but few nocturnal operations, a wholesale food market in situ for almost 900 years, is set to close after the City of London Corporation revealed its council voted to call time on both Smithfield and Billingsgate fish market, reports the Standard.
- “Groucho Club: man, 34, arrested on suspicion of rape” – A 34 year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of raping a woman in the Groucho, one of London’s best known private members clubs, according to Sky News.
- “Fuel Minister heats £4 million Notting Hill home from public purse” – The Cabinet minister who axed pensioners’ winter fuel payments has her own £350-a-month energy bills paid by the taxpayer – while she lives in a £4 million home, reports the Mail.
- “Major car manufacturer ‘on the brink of collapse’” – Nissan, lagging behind rivals in the hybrid race, faces the alarming prospect of collapse within a year, says the Mail.
- “Britain has a choice: amend the electric car mandate or let the industry go bust” – The U.K.’s Net Zero policies are now costing serious numbers of jobs – and threatening entire regional economies, warns Liam Halligan in the Telegraph.
- “How the Zero Emissions Vehicle mandate is skewing the U.K. car market” – In the Telegraph, MG’s Guy Pigounakis exposes how the U.K.’s Zero Emissions Vehicle mandate is distorting the car market, pushing manufacturers into market manipulation and imposing massive fines on them.
- “‘The Great Grid Gamble‘” – A new report by the CPS exposes Ed Miliband’s 2030 decarbonisation plan as based on inflated forecasts and unrealistic assumptions.
- “The International Criminal Court has zero credibility left. It cannot survive” – The ICC broke its own rules when it issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu. It is not fit for purpose, says Sir Michael Ellis in the Telegraph.
- “On Mary and the mob” – The backlash to the new Netflix film Mary is about something much deeper: the attempt to de-Judaize Christianity, writes Rod Dreher in the Free Press.
- “Children carry out surge of contract killings as Swedish gangs exploit loophole in the law” – In Sweden, gangs are exploiting a legal loophole that protects children under 15 from prosecution, recruiting kids as young as 11 to carry out contract killings, reports James Rothwell in the Telegraph.
- “Zelensky says he needs Nato guarantees before entering peace talks with Putin” – Volodymyr Zelensky says that Ukraine needs security guarantees from NATO and additional weapons for self-defense before engaging in talks with Russia, according to the Telegraph.
- “China sends officials to study effects of sanctions on Russia as it eyes up Taiwan invasion” – China has sent officials to the Russian central bank to study the effects of Western sanctions for a better understanding of how it would be affected if it were to invade Taiwan, reports the Telegraph.
- “Hysterical reactions to Trump’s re-election only alienate voters” – Americans need less primal screaming from progressives and more sanity, says Zoe Strimpel in the Telegraph.
- “‘MAGA can rule for 50 years and Farage will be PM’” – In the Times, firebrand Trump ally Steve Bannon tells Louise Callaghan that defeating “whining” Democrats was just the beginning – at home and abroad.
- “‘I was forced to pull out my teeth after waiting to go to the dentists’” – A woman says she was forced to pull out her teeth after waiting nearly seven years for an NHS dentist appointment, according to the Mail.
- “‘People treat the NHS like a buffet. We need to take more responsibility’” – In an interview with the Telegraph’s Chris Harvey, Roger Daltrey stresses the need for greater personal responsibility.
- “‘I became a single mum at 41 thanks to IVF… here’s my advice’” – In the Mail, a single mother who got pregnant via IVF reflects on the rising trend of solo motherhood and the tough realities of raising a son without a father.
- “Divide and conquer” – HART exposes how Pfizer’s latest safety data reveals alarming cardiac risks and multi-system injuries, hidden in plain sight.
- “Sabotaging RFK Jr.’s confirmation will increase vaccine hesitancy” – On Substack, Prof. Vinay Prasad calls out Scott Gottlieb for trying to sabotage RFK Jr.’s nomination, warning that undermining him will only fuel vaccine hesitancy.
- “NHS trust which claimed trans women could breastfeed makes U-turn” – An NHS Trust that spread “misinformation” by claiming biological males could breastfeed as effectively as new mothers has performed a U-turn after outrage from campaigners, reports the Mail.
- “Theatre bosses issue trigger warnings for pantomimes” – Theatre bosses have issued trigger warnings for pantomimes over ”loud noises”, says the Mail.
- “ITV warns viewers Oliver has ‘violence and language from a bygone era’” – Critics are furious that the ITV X streaming service has chosen to issue an “objectionable” and “highly misleading” warning for David Lean’s acclaimed 1948 adaptation of Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist, according to the Mail.
- “Has ‘wokeness’ killed the English literature degree?” – With universities starting to axe English literature, the subject that helped shape Britain’s national identity is falling into crisis, warns Claire Allfree in the Telegraph.
- “Rupert Everett hits out cultural appropriation ‘bulls***’ in acting” – British actor Rupert Everett has branded worries about “cultural appropriation” in films as “just bulls**t”, taking a swipe at activists who he claims are “in charge”, reports the Mail.
- “Why haters gonna hate Jacob Rees-Mogg” – Perhaps what people really hate about Jacob Rees-Mogg is what people hate about eccentrics generally: that he won’t give in to pressure to conform even a little bit, as the cowardly rest of us do, says Kathleen Stock in UnHerd.
- “Students unable to speak with those who disagree with them, says Ivy League chief” – An Ivy League university president has warned that students can no longer converse with people who disagree with them because of a rise in online “echo chambers”, reports the Telegraph.
- “With Christmas just round the corner, this shirt is a must-have for the season” – Many X users have been getting excited by this new t-shirt with a bar code on it. Press play to find out why.
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.
Death Of Freedom Closes In – latest leaflet to print at home and deliver to neighbours or forward to politicians, your new MP, your local vicar, online media and friends online. Start a local campaign. We have over 200 leaflet ideas on the link on the leaflet.
Zelensky says he needs Nato guarantees before entering peace talks with Putin
The mad war of attrition grinds on.
Oh! You think Russia is winning?
Enjoy:
‘A Russian military blogger reports that, due to the widespread ban on using personal civilian vehicles, some sections of the front for Russian forces resemble a children’s cartoon, as everyone has to ride bicycles to carry out their tasks.’
‘Now the front in one direction resembles the domain of ‘Postman Pechkin’. Everyone is on bicycles. Some are delivering ammunition, some are heading to positions, others to meetings. Trekking tens of kilometres in full gear isn’t very feasible, and official vehicles with military plates aren’t always available. They’ve either burned in combat, broken down or are occupied with other tasks. As a result one of the joking reasons for why we aren’t yet at Kiev is because we’re walking there on foot.’
But everything on the home front is fine…..in Moscow…..
Elsewhere….not so much……
‘A break-in at a small food store in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg wouldn’t usually make headlines around the world, but this time was different. CCTV footage from the store, Dairy Place, in early November appears to show the door being smashed and one person rushing over to empty the cash register. The other person makes a beeline for the fridge, plundering 20 kilograms of butter from the chiller, Russian media reported.
The owner of the store said on Telegram that the heist showed butter was now like “gold,”
‘“literally half of all Russians spend most of their earnings on food, so they feel inflation the most.”
“Product inflation is now the greatest driver for inflation, as such. So prices for basic goods, food and other personal items are increasing the most…..So far, the strategy for most Russians has been to downgrade their consumption patterns, opt for lower-quality goods. Postpone any long-term purchases. However, this stress is not spread out evenly. Moscow is still barely feeling the troubles. The most hit are [people in] the smallest towns and rural areas,”
But the Russian propaganda machine is even evident on here, with some comments straight out of the Kremlin loudhailer.
‘In November, Vladimir Putin revealed his new plan for a “world order.” Basically, Russia declared its plan to place BRICS over the West, which is allegedly already in decline. As with many Russian plans, this one also comes with a strong propaganda campaign. Pro-Russian platforms in Europe are already pushing propaganda content to convince people that the EU is gradually collapsing.’
How are things really going?
Look to Syria for the answer:
‘The question is why were Assad’s forces so suddenly vulnerable, when four years ago they appeared close to crushing HTS in Idlib. Answers are not difficult to find. Russia is not the force it was in Syria in the last decade, because Moscow has shifted its military focus and resources to its invasion of Ukraine…….S-300 missile systems were withdrawn from Syria for the war in Ukraine in 2022 and Russia’s presence generally down-weighted. Moscow’s ability to provide sustained support for Assad will inevitably be constrained in the longer term.’
‘We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine’
Lloyd Austin, U.S. Defense Secretary
Those S300 missiles were essential for shooting down aircraft from the rebel air force.
Be fair, the EU is collapsing. What Putin does not know or want to be told is that Russia is goung down faster.
What is fair about repeating one side’s propaganda?
I think Russia is winning simply because of websites such as https://www.youtube.com/@militarysummary which report on daily Russian advances.
The ban on using civilian vehicles in a military operation sounds like common sense to me. After all, would you take your new Bentley to a front line? I certainly would not. But I am afraid your bicycle story, although being admirably environmentally conscious, sounds more like propaganda from a Western or Ukrainian source. Or could it be that the Chinese have now joined the conflict, replacing those phantom North Koreans?
And it is strange that your butter thieves did not also plunder the apparently hard to come by potatoes.
And how could Putin possibly think the West is in decline? Maybe he has been paying too much attention to Wikipedia, e.g. here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_external_debt. After all, war is very expensive for all sides.
Finally, as far as Syria is concerned, good old Simplicius reported on the danger of freezing conflicts. He wrote that the outbreak of hostilities in Syria serves as an …
extremely timely and poignant cautionary tale against freezing the Ukrainian conflict. It’s clear that the side of a frozen conflict which has less to lose always has the advantage. For instance, in Syria’s case, society returned to normality which allowed troops to be dismissed, command to weaken or grow lax, because Syria is a normally aspiring country, with citizens that seek to live and improve their lives. But in the terrorist dens of places like Idlib, all the militants could do was seethe and stew in their extremist resentment while fashioning grand vengeance plans at the expense of productive lives.
The same will happen in Ukraine. After a freeze, Russia—being a normal country—is much more disposed to return to a state of disarmed normality and forward-looking productivity, while Ukraine will be broken and consumed in its plans for retribution for years to come, if need be, planning to finally one day catch Russia subdued and off guard.
As such these barbarous forces always have the upper hand in patience and the element of surprise against developmentally superior countries seeking a return to normalcy, economic growth, and social development.
Actually, the Wikipedia debt figures are stunning:
USA, of course, has the greatest debt at $34.5 trillion but ‘only’ corresponding to 92% of GDP;
UK proudly in second place with almost $10 trillion debt, corresponding to 281% of GDP;
France is chasing UK with nearly $8 trillion debt, corresponding to 250% of GDP;
Ireland’s debt is a pathetic $184 billion but corresponding to 571% of GDP;
Russia, for the record, is in 31st place with a debt of $306 billion, corresponding to 15% of GDP.
Now tell me that Putin was wrong to think the West is in an economical decline!
“Theatre bosses issue trigger warnings for pantomimes” – Theatre bosses have issued trigger warnings for pantomimes over ”loud noises”, says the Mail.
I wasn’t warned about the content of this trigger warning:
“The warning issued to viewers by the BBFC states: ‘A green-skinned woman is mocked, bullied and humiliated because of her skin colour.‘”
And now I’m triggered, shocked, upset and angry that a woman would be mocked, bullied and humiliated because of the colour of her skin.
They should issue trigger warnings for trigger warnings.
Talking of trigger warnings and vaguely on topic, we went to see Conclave (new film) the other day. I won’t say much about the film unless I spoil it for anyone who would like to see it, but I did get to wondering what the reaction would have been to a film in a similar vein made about the inner processes of some very important Islamic religious body (though I doubt such a film would even have got made).
POTUS “Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter. From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted. Without aggravating factors like use in a crime, multiple purchases, or buying a weapon as a straw purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form. Those who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions, but paid them back subsequently with interest and penalties, are typically given non-criminal resolutions. It is clear that Hunter was treated differently.”
Clearly set a precedent for Trump.
I assume the pardon is wal-to-wall and unlimited in depth is so Hunter cannot be prosecuted for the other offences identified over the years but ignored by the Democrat AGs. I suspect many others will have their collars felt in some way: the 50 CIA signatories who claimed the laptop from hell was a Russian plant, for example, and banks responsible for overseas money laundering ,ight have to explain how the funds for Hunter Biden were diverted to other beneficiaries.
And what did Hunter threaten his dad with if he was sentenced?
He has an awful lot of inside info on the big man’s dealings.
Unlimited from 1 Jan 2014 onwards
above the law – by el gato malo – bad cattitude
Key wording is “including but not limited to….”
Surely a total and utter conflict of interest to top any other?…
“Britain ‘warned of Russian meddling in Chagos deal’”
Yes, as any tourist will tell you, Mauritius is full of Russian agents posing as dodo researchers who spend their evenings in the bars persuading gullible locals that Britain is fooling them over the Chagos islands.
It is, of course, possible that Mauritians see the news and have opinions that include seeing the lack of transparency in the Starmer government’s deal, and noting President Trump’s opposition to the deal.
It’s also possible that British public opinion is being nudged by Russophobic propaganda originating far closer to home, the last four years having demonstrated that meddling with our minds is the very essence of British life now.
“New MPs demand a family-friendly six-hour day for parliament”
A good idea. After all, you can rubber-stamp party policy from home as from an erstwile debating chamber. In fact, it’s so easy that one could dispense with paying a salary and make it a voluntary position.
Or we could get rid of all MP’s who want to “work from home.”
I don’t listen to it since it ceased to be about the countryside I remember and mostly about the latest social revolution.
But are you seriously telling us there were not weks of anguish on the show about the effect of NI and IHT. Surely a party of locals went up to London to protest, drove tractors around the district and generally kicked up hell in the pub. No? What a strange bunch of “farmers” they have in those parts.
“Major car manufacturer ‘on the brink of collapse’”
“Britain has a choice: amend the electric car mandate or let the industry go bust”
“How the Zero Emissions Vehicle mandate is skewing the U.K. car market”
If you were to search around the various trade papers you could add to the above with concerns about the motor-bike industry and the caravan industry. For many people it is quite possible to delay changing their car, motor-bike or caravan for a few years and as far as I can see for many people I know this is what they are doing, sitting tight until the situation becomes clearer. But all these industries add up to an important part of our economy and their collapse will feed in to huge implications for our economy.
This will also lead into huge social change, dire consequences for towns like Luton and very few cars to come through onto the secondhand market in a few years time when people will need to replace their ailing old car. All the small businesses round here like builders, electricians and gardeners will no longer be able to buy old vans from BT or the Post Office unless they are in a position to charge an EV van, which many are not, the effect on small businesses could be dire. The EV thing and the ZEV Mandate is heading the UK for a strange and to my mind dismal immiserated new way of life.
Everything Net Zero in fact , nothing left , empty , limp mode , broken ruined & maybe beyond repair !
“heading the UK for a strange and to my mind dismal immiserated new way of life.”
That’s the plan. Due for completion by 2030.
We really are in one hell of a mess, aren’t we?
I honestly wonder what is the point of carrying on sometimes. The future looks incredibly bleak indeed, and I truly fear that everything I have achieved in life so far will ultimately be for nothing.
The shrinking number of us who are actively contributing to the economy and to our communities will steadily be taxed out of existence to perpetuate this madness.
Yet it still seems as though most people are just completely unaware, or don’t care, consumed with pulp TV and nonsense.
You get red-pilled when you realise how much you’ve been lied to.
You get black-pilled when you realise the seriousness of the results.
Then, maybe, you realise the problem is ultimately spiritual, and get white pilled.
I’m just sick of it all tbh.