News Round-Up

• “Wes Streeting prepares to challenge Keir Starmer for No 10” – Wes Streeting is expected to quit the Government and launch his campaign­ for No 10 today in a move that may plunge the Labour Party into civil war, reports the Times.
• “Manchester Rusholme MP could stand aside for Andy Burnham” – Afzal Khan, the Labour MP for Manchester Rusholme, is prepared to step down to let Andy Burnham return to Westminster and challenge Sir Keir Starmer to become Prime Minister, says the Times.
• “Why is the Labour Party so bad at coups?” – Those plotting a coup to get rid of Sir Keir Starmer can shout and scream all they like but they have little room to manoeuvre if he chooses not to quit, writes Jawad Iqbal in the Spectator.
• “City giants dump bonds over Starmer leadership crisis” – Major investors are turning their backs on UK bonds as the country’s leadership crisis deepens and markets lose faith in Labour’s economic direction, says the Telegraph.
• “The King’s Speech confirms that Starmer is our safest bet” – In CapX, Joseph Dinnage argues that for all his failures, Sir Keir Starmer remains preferable to any likely Left-wing successor, with the bond markets having already made their preference known.
• “We have learnt nothing from the economic disaster of lockdown” – Rising interest rates have turned the Bank of England’s pandemic-era profits into enormous losses, and yet the Government continues to repeat the same fiscal mistakes, writes Jeremy Warner in the Telegraph.
• “Keir Starmer accused of ‘rewriting Brexit’ with controversial new law” – The new European Partnership Bill, announced in the King’s Speech, is drawing fierce criticism from those who say it ties Britain back to EU rules by the back door, reports the Express.
• “The Tories can win London – if they’re smart” – The capital is the only place where the Conservatives are regaining ground, notes Alys Denby in CapX.
• “Nigel Farage faces Commons standards probe into £5 million gift” – Parliamentary Standards Commissioner Daniel Greenberg has opened an investigation into an undeclared £5 million donation to Nigel Farage from cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne, reports the Mail.
• “My name is currently Zack Polanski and it’s time the world knows all my truths” – After near-daily newspaper reports querying the inconsistencies in his CV and life story, the Green Party leader (AKA the Telegraph’s Guy Kelly) has issued a very funny statement setting the record straight.
• “How to stop anti-racism harming our institutions and our country” – In Will Solfiac’s Newsletter, Will argues that a public inquiry, reform of the Equality Act and a purge of DEI are the essential first steps towards reversing the damage anti-racism ideology has done to British public life.
• “Why did I feel like the only Muslim to speak at the march against antisemitism?” – The absence of British Muslims at last Sunday’s antisemitism demonstration outside Downing Street exposes a painful truth – that too many are unwilling to condemn Jew hatred, laments Fiyaz Mughal in the Telegraph.
• “The disunited kingdom” – The British political establishment is being forced, slowly and with great reluctance, to acknowledge the depth of the country’s divisions – divisions it did much to create and everything to deny, says Charlie Napier in the Critic.
• “Sadistic violence of October 7th was not about history or land” – In the Mail, Sarah Vine argues that the systematic sexual torture of Israeli women on October 7th was an act of sadism that no political cause can either explain or excuse.
•  “Muslim Association director who called October 7th a lie refused entry to Canada” – A leading figure in the Muslim Association of Britain who defended Hamas’s hostage-taking in its October 7th attack has been refused entry to Canada, reports the Telegraph.
• “The BBC can’t fact-check its way out of collapsing public trust” – BBC Verify operates on the same biased principles as the rest of the corporation, says Robin Aitken in the Telegraph.
• “Private schools spent years chasing foreign students. Now they’re bribing the British to come back” – Faced with classes full of overseas pupils, parents are shunning their alma mater – but the institutions may not survive without them, writes Melissa Twigg in the Telegraph.
• “There is no cause less deserving than Waspi women” – The Waspi women’s claim that they were not properly warned about changes to the state pension age is grievance culture at its most impudent, says Melanie McDonagh in the Telegraph.
•  “Feeble, inert and no influence: the world misses British political wisdom” – In Brussels Signal, Conrad Black argues that after six failed prime ministers in quick succession, Britain has forfeited every strategic relationship it once held and now has no influence in the world whatsoever.
• “By-election candidate slams multiculturalism, secularism” – Irish People Party candidate A.J. Cahill has described multicultural societies as “chaotic, low-trust” and “high-violence”, while also arguing that many of Ireland’s modern social problems stem from a decline in Christian values, reports Gript.
• “Britons among 1,700 quarantined on cruise ship after mystery illness outbreak” – More than 1,700 people have been quarantined aboard a British cruise ship following an outbreak of gastrointestinal illness that has already resulted in a death, says the Telegraph.
• “Today Ralph Baric was forcibly retired. Let’s examine his career and his central role in the Covid disaster” – In Meryl’s CHAOS Letter, Meryl Nass examines claims that renowned virologist Ralph Baric received over $200 million in grants and played a central role in the origin and cover-up of COVID-19, despite being barred from federal funding and twice being placed on leave.
• “AI Safety Institute debuts with big-name backers and a censorship agenda” – Every major speaker at the Common Sense Media Copenhagen summit – including Hillary Clinton, Ursula von der Leyen and Ofcom’s chief – has a track record of pushing for expanded government control over online speech, notes Cindy Harper in Reclaim The Net.
• “Miliband vows permanent shutdown of the North Sea” – Labour is planning legislation to make it harder for any future government to reopen oil fields, says the Telegraph.
• “Ed Miliband’s Net Zero plan seems more ludicrous by the day” – The Energy Secretary is operating in fantasy land if he thinks he can get renewable costs down, writes Kathryn Porter in the Telegraph.
• “UK set to lose 160,000 jobs over soaring energy prices” – New projections show Britain will shed more than 160,000 jobs this year as slow growth and sky-high energy costs take their toll on business, according to Breitbart.
• “New York following Cuba’s strategy for powering the electrical grid” – On the Manhattan Contrarian, Francis Menton shows that New York’s policy of starving fossil fuel plants of investment while propping up solar is following the exact path that has left two-thirds of Cuba in blackout.
• “The dark side of tidal turbines no one talks about: fish have started creating ‘superhighways’ and where they go worries experts” – Scientists are alarmed that tidal turbines are redirecting fish along new migration routes that could disrupt entire ecosystems, according to the Pulse.
• “No climate crisis… warming generally better for humanity” – On NoTricksZone, P. Gosselin reports on Dr Bernd Fleischmann’s withering critique of climate alarmism, in which the German physicist accuses the IPCC of using junk models to drive a wealth redistribution scheme dressed up as environmental policy.
• “Fish go to the disco to save the coral reefs” – In Watts Up With That?, Charles Rotter reacts to PBS promoting solar-powered underwater speakers playing reef sounds in Jamaica as a means of saving coral reefs from climate change.
• “The bitter taste of climate change” – Christian Aid is warning that climate change will ruin your cuppa, a claim as ridiculous as it sounds, says Paul Homewood in Not a Lot of People Know That.
• “Texas transplants feel ‘lucky’ to find vagrant’s faeces on front porch after fleeing ‘climate change’” – A couple who fled Austin for Maine to escape Red-state politics and “climate anxiety” have responded with cheerful equanimity after finding a vagrant had defecated on their front porch, writes Andrew Stiles in the Washington Free Beacon.
• “Punished and silenced for telling the truth” – Councillor John Edwards was dragged through a £15,000 taxpayer-funded inquisition for questioning Bracknell Forest Council’s Afghan hotel resettlement scheme – cleared of all charges with help from the Free Speech Union, he now faces a new charge of “bringing his office into disrepute” – a chilling warning that local democracy is under attack. Support free speech and help fund his legal defence by donating to his crowdfunder today.

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