News Round-Up

• “Farage becomes bookies’ favourite for next PM” – Nigel Farage is now Ladbrokes’s favourite to be the next PM, with odds on Reform winning the most seats slashed from 16/1 to 9/4, reports Guido Fawkes.
• “‘Nigel Farage’s Reform is taking over’” – On GB News, Matt Goodwin dives into the seismic shift happening in British politics, focusing on Nigel Farage’s growing influence and his revolt against the establishment.
• “Taxpayers to foot £1 billion pensions boost for civil servants” – Public sector workers will be handed another £1 billion a year in pension contributions on top of their latest pay rise, reports the Telegraph.
• “Blair issues alert over ‘high taxes’ after Starmer’s National Insurance raid” – Tony Blair warns that “high taxes” are leading to political disillusionment in Britain, according to the Telegraph.
• “‘Rachel Reeves’ inheritance tax on farms is disgraceful. Farmers work bloody hard’” – In the Telegraph, Kirstie Allsopp slams Rachel Reeves’ inheritance tax on farms as “disgraceful”, warning it will destroy family farms essential to the rural economy.
• “Labour’s business backers – where are they now?” – Labour won the public backing of over 120 business chiefs in a letter before the election – but their enthusiasm appears to have dimmed since then. City AM tries to track them down.
• “How Starmer’s Chagos deal could play into China’s hands” – The handover of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius raises the possibility that President Xi will establish a military base in the area, warns Ed Cumming in the Telegraph.
• “The Chagos Islands deal exposes a worrying world view at No.10” – The increasingly curious case of the Chagos Islands threatens to commit British taxpayers to paying huge sums of money to Mauritius for the next hundred years, writes Dia Chakravarty in the Telegraph.
• “Allison Pearson investigation was ‘ethical’, insists Essex Police chief” – The Chief Constable of Essex Police has defended the way his officers handled the investigation into Allison Pearson, insisting they had behaved “proportionately, fairly and very, very ethically”, reports the Telegraph.
• “Ipso has misstepped” – The issue of gender identity is highly contested, and Gareth Roberts was entitled to express his view without being wrist-slapped by the regulator, says the Telegraph in a leading article.
• “We’re losing the right to offend – and that should frighten us all” – A press watchdog ruling says journalists cannot call a trans woman “a man who claims to be a woman” – so what should we call him? asks Michael Deacon in the Telegraph.
• “J.K. Rowling shares criticism of press watchdog over trans ruling” – J.K. Rowling has slammed Ipso’s “mad” ruling against the Spectator, reports the Telegraph.
• “Sinister zealots are putting free speech under threat in Britain as never before” – The press regulator must not allow itself to be used to stymie the expression of legitimate opinion, writes Allister Heath in the Telegraph.
• “Free speech laws ‘toothless’ without compensation for victims, warn academics” – Academics have warned that the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act will be “toothless” without a legally enforceable compensation scheme for university staff and students who’ve been cancelled, reports the Telegraph.
• “In defence of Connie Shaw” – In the Spectator, Debbie Hayton offers a powerful defence of Connie Shaw, the Leeds student who’s been punished for her gender critical beliefs.
• “Guardian editor at risk of no confidence vote as anger mounts over Observer sale” – The editor of the Guardian is facing a no confidence vote from the unionised staff as anger mounts over the sale of the Observer, reports the Telegraph.
• “It’s not bigotry to worry about migration – the latest figures tell a complex story” – Large parts of Britain would not function without migrants, but there are adverse consequences for housing, GDP and productivity, admits Guardian columnist Larry Elliott.
• “Deport all foreign criminals and scrap visas for countries that refuse” – Robert Jenrick has urged the deportation of all foreign criminals in U.K. prisons, threatening to halt visas for countries that refuse to accept them, reports the Telegraph.
• “Democrat resistance to mass deportations is a recipe for civil war” – Closing the border is a necessity. But Trump will face huge political and economic resistance, warns Joel Kotkin in the Telegraph.
• “Met Police staff vote to strike over right to work from home” – Metropolitan Police staff, including child protection officers, have voted to go on strike in a row over plans to cut back on the time they spend working from home, reports the Mail.
• “Rayner to force plans for new prisons on towns and villages” – Angela Rayner is set to wield new powers to force through prisons on green belt land and overrule local authorities as part of Labour’s mass building drive, says GB News.
• “Rayner ‘will clear green belt area the size of Surrey’ for homes” – According to the Mail, Angela Rayner is set to allow construction on an area of green belt cumulatively larger than Surrey to meet Labour’s target of getting 1.5 million homes built by 2029.
• “Miliband bails out wind turbine factory as demand for blades tumbles” – Ministers have been forced to step in and rescue a wind turbine factory after collapsing demand for blades pushed it to near collapse, reports the Telegraph.
• “Green energy tycoon ‘gave Labour millions to reduce payout to ex-wife in divorce’” – Just Stop Oil backer Dale Vince has been accused by his ex-wife’s lawyer of donating millions to the Labour Party to reduce the amount he would have to pay her in a divorce battle, says the Standard.
• “Russian ‘spy ring met with Just Stop Oil’” – Russian spies met with Just Stop Oil protesters to plan a disinformation campaign against Kazakhstan, reports the Telegraph.
• “The explosion of Jew-hate in Trudeau’s Canada” – In the Free Press, Terry Glavin explores the reasons behind Canada’s recent 670% increase in antisemitic incidents.
• “British teen ‘jailed for year after sex in Dubai’” – A British teenager has been jailed in the United Arab Emirates for having consensual sex with a 17 year-old girl, reports the BBC.
• “Grotesque FIFA bows down to Saudi Arabia in most craven sell-out in sport’s history” – Gianni Infantino has not even attempted to justify the 2034 World Cup fait accompli, and no wonder – it would be defending the indefensible, says Oliver Brown in the Telegraph.
• “Javier Milei’s medicine is working” – One year in, the Argentine President is demonstrating that a radically different set of solutions is possible, writes Matthew Lynn in the Spectator.
• “Stop idolising Luigi Mangione” – The idolisation of Luigi Mangione, the murder suspect in the shooting of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, is plain creepy, says Brendan O’Neill in the Spectator.
• “‘Luigi Mangione’s disgusting Gen-Z fan club makes me fear for our society’s future’” – Millions are salivating over the alleged assassin of Brian Thompson in a disgusting display of our society’s moral collapse, writes Zoe Strimpel in the Telegraph.
• “Puberty blockers for under-18s banned after warning of ‘unacceptable risk’ to children” – Puberty blockers for under-18s with gender dysphoria will be banned indefinitely in the U.K. after experts warned of an “unacceptable safety risk”, according to Sky News.
• “Why would mortality data by vaccine exposure be withheld from Parliament and Jane/Joe Public?” – When public health agencies withhold mortality data on vaccine exposure while sharing it with Big Pharma, one must wonder whose interests they were serving, say Dr. Tom Jefferson and Prof. Carl Heneghan on the TTE Substack.
• “No evidence for TGA’s mRNA safety claim” – Australia’s drug regulator claims that LNPs carrying synthetic DNA into cells all over the body are safe, but have refused to provide proof under a Freedom of Information request, reports Rebekah Barnett on her Substack.
• “Infant RSV mRNA injection trials paused due to safety concerns” – Moderna’s experimental injections appear to have exacerbated severe lower respiratory tract infections instead of preventing RSV, writes Nicholas Hulscher on the Courageous Discourse Substack.
• “Trump’s revenge: naming Dr. Bhattacharya to head the NIH” – Trump’s pick of Dr. Jay Bhattacharya for NIH chief is a smart “revenge” play, says Merrill Matthews in the Hill.
• “The quiet radicalism of Jay Bhattacharya” – Putting Prof. Jay Bhattacharya in charge of the National Institutes of Health is Trump’s best move yet, writes Brendan O’Neill in Spiked.
• “LTA bans transgender players from women’s game in clampdown” – Men claiming to be women will be banned from playing in the female category in most domestic tennis competitions in Britain from next month, reports Sky Sports.
• “Firefighter ‘jumps’ queue in qualifying exams after changing sex to become woman” – A firefighter has been accused of “queue jumping” after failing qualifying exams as a man – only to announce he was becoming a woman to “take advantage of a lower pass mark”, reports LBC.
• “Feminist barrister accused of misconduct after ‘boys club’ criticism of judge” – A high-profile barrister has been accused of professional misconduct after she criticised a judge’s ruling over a domestic abuse case by accusing him of being a member of a “boys’ club”, says the Telegraph.
• “Woke university bosses ban staff from saying ‘Christmas break’” – Newcastle University staff have been asked not to say “Christmas break” over fears it will offend snowflake students, reports the Sun.
• “Ainsley Harriott defends ‘fantastic’ Gregg Wallace after sexual harassment allegations” – Ainsley Harriott has backed Gregg Wallace over sexual harassment claims, saying he had a great time on Celebrity MasterChef and Greg is the reason it’s such a hit, according to the Express.
• “You Khan’t be serious?!” – The latest New Year’s Honours List is a joke, and Sadiq Khan’s knighthood is the punchline, says Frank Haviland in the New Conservative.
• “‘Legalising cannabis one of the greatest mistakes of all time’” – Elton John has called the legalisation of marijuana in parts of North America “one of the greatest mistakes of all time”, reports LBC.
• “‘Feed the World (But Not Those in the U.K.)’” – ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ is the latest Christmas song to be given the AI treatment and used to slam Keir Starmer’s cutting of winter fuel payments to pensioners.

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