- “Jason Arday should never have been allowed high enough to fall as he did” – The death of Cambridge professor Jason Arday raises urgent questions about the systems that elevated him beyond his abilities, reports the National Review.
- “Andy Burnham: Jason Arday’s death is a tragedy” – Andy Burnham has described the death of Jason Arday as “a tragedy on so many levels” for his family, friends and all who knew him, says the Telegraph.
- “Jason Arday, Cambridge professor embroiled in an intense plagiarism controversy” – An academic who put Arday’s doctoral thesis through anti-plagiarism software found “numerous examples of plagiarism, either verbatim” – a scandal the Telegraph now chronicles in full in his obituary.
- “Jason Arday: a black and white case” – On his Substack, Frank Haviland argues that the tragic end of Jason Arday’s life was entirely predictable and represents a clear-cut case study in the consequences of race-based advancement.
- “In full: the ‘diverse’ Cambridge recruitment guide that could have boosted Arday” – Max Young on Guido Fawkes reveals the organisation-wide guide Cambridge University imposed to recruit more ‘diverse’ individuals – what critics call the “soft bigotry of low expectations” in documentary form.
- “Reform unveils plan for £50 billion a year in welfare cuts” – The party would abolish personal independence payments and the health element of Universal Credit for working-age adults as part of a sweeping welfare overhaul, reports the Telegraph.
- “Andy Burnham is almost out of time” – Some of the over-excited commentary in the wake of the Clacton by-election has suggested Reform UK has peaked. But we are not about to return to “politics as normal”, says James Frayne in the Telegraph. The fundamentals of British politics still favour Farage.
- “Andy Burnham may be tempted by a snap election. Would it be wise?” – Breaking free of the constraints of Labour’s 2024 manifesto could set the agenda, but the risks of calling an early election are immense, according to the Times.
- “Prep schools ‘could vanish within five years’ after Labour VAT changes” – The private school sector has been plunged into financial turmoil since Labour removed the VAT exemption on school fees in January 2025, with some warning the damage could prove terminal, reveals the Telegraph.
- “Islamic faith school set to drop fee-paying model from September” – Barnet Hill Academy, which has operated as an independent Islamic faith school for 20 years, will open its doors to more primary school pupils by abandoning fees, writes David Floyd in the Barnet Post.
- “Macron under fire for jet-skiing on holiday while France burns” – Emmanuel Macron has been accused of megalomania for showing off on a jetski while wildfires continue to ravage France, says the Telegraph.
- “Swiss politician calls for overhaul of ‘absurd’ gender laws after city issues apology to bearded male who was arrested in women’s nudist zone” – Zurich National Councillor Nina Fehr Düsel has announced plans to submit a motion abolishing simple gender changes after Zurich issued an apology to a bearded male arrested in a women’s nudist zone, writes Reduxx.
- “Report: British groups push age verification bills in 21 US states” – British trade groups whose members profit from selling ID checks have spent years lobbying for age verification legislation across 21 US states, notes Reclaim The Net.
- “Burnham’s BBQ phone alert sparks chaos as 999 is swamped with calls” – Sirens blaring unexpectedly from millions of mobile phones at 7pm on Friday, warning the public against lighting anything that could start a wildfire, caused chaos as 999 was flooded with calls, reports the Mail.
- “The week in energy – August 15th 2026” – On his Substack, Richard Lyon says this was the week the state found three new places to pass on the cost of its energy policy – and not one of them involves a cut.
- “Britain races against the world to unlock energy’s holy grail” – The UK’s quest to make nuclear fusion a reality is approaching the scale of the Manhattan Project as Britain competes with rivals across the globe, reveals Andrew Orlowski in the Telegraph.
- “Monks fight ‘money-grabbing’ wind turbine plans” – The head of a Scottish island monastery has launched a fierce attack on plans to build a wind farm off its coast, with turbines as tall as skyscrapers, says the Telegraph.
- “Water companies to charge more during droughts” – Water companies will be permitted to charge consumers higher prices during droughts under Government-backed plans, reports the Telegraph.
- “The loneliness epidemic is not caused by climate change, PBS News” – In Climate Realism, Linnea Lueken argues that claims by the Conversation and PBS linking the loneliness epidemic to climate change are without foundation.
- “Reform pledges to end hosepipe bans” – Reform UK has vowed to end summer hosepipe bans by building more reservoirs and scrapping water reduction targets, reports the Telegraph.
- “Ofcom criticism of BBC satire show ‘will have chilling effect’” – Ofcom faces accusations of curbing free speech after censuring the BBC for airing a joke on a satirical radio show, says the Telegraph.
- “The BBC will come to regret its bizarre obsession with drag queens” – The BBC’s relentless promotion of drag queens mistakes ideology for progress, and history offers a stark warning about where such obsessions lead, writes Michael Deacon in the Telegraph.
- “Racist man broke into BBC Scotland offices to demand interview about immigration” – A man broke into BBC Scotland’s offices to demand an on-air interview about immigration, notes Connor Gordon in the National.
- “Simon Sebag Montefiore: appeasing radical activists will make the West ungovernable” – Ahead of a new book about the Middle East, Simon Sebag Montefiore reflects on the dangerous public discourse around terrorism, migration and gender, reports the Telegraph.
- “The staggering classism of the Count Binface campaign” – From Westminster to the New York Times, liberal snobs cheered on a trashcan candidate against the working classes, writes Brendan O’Neill in Spiked.
- “How Britain’s strictest school scores an AAA average” – Almost 70% of A-level candidates at Michaela Community School in northwest London achieved double the national average in their exams, says the Times.
- “They couldn’t even wait until the corpse was cold” – Comedian Andrew Lawrence condemns the shameless weaponisation of Jason Arday’s death by the ‘anti-racist’ Left.
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Ofcom faces accusations of curbing free speech after censuring the BBC for airing a joke on a satirical radio show, says the Telegraph.
Isn’t that what Ofcom is for? If not, what? Isn’t having a “chilling effect” on free speech the whole point of legislation and regulations and state bodies with power to regulate speech?
Andy Burnham: Peter Lynch’s death is a tragedy
Andy Burnham: Henry Nowak’s death is a tragedy
Andy Burnham: Charlie’s Kirk’s death is a tragedy
Andy Burnham: Iryna Zarutska’s death is a tragedy
Andy Burnham: Ann Widdecombe’s death is a tragedy
“The UK’s quest to make nuclear fusion a reality is approaching the scale of the Manhattan Project as Britain competes with rivals across the globe, reveals Andrew Orlowski in the Telegraph.”
this will be a cash sink.
We already know how to build nukes but failed to do so for decades. The o es under construction are years late and £billions over budget.
Small nukes are in limbo awaiting bureaucratic sign off under health and safety laws. Perhaps it will take a decade and cost more than a mini nuke.
Meanwhile a poor and shrinking country try is to spent untold billions in a on speculative research. No doubt the proponents will say the input materials are cheap or free like wind and sunlight but to deliver juice will be hideously expensive.
Such a scheme, run by the government, will never yield a return snd like HS2 it will over run on all metrics
Nuclear fission is unaffordable – it can only be built with massive (taxpayer) subsidies and guaranteed above wholesale market prices to ensure adequate return for private investors. And nuclear fission is well known technology.
So nuclear fusion which requires much more complex engineering and safeguards will be exorbitant.
Nuclear fusion has been “just a decade away” for the last 75 years. It is the fuel of the future… and always will be.
What problem do “small nukes” solve that full size coal and gas generation does not?
It is real time – 150 million km away. We’ve got a bit of long term storage of it’s output, which some seem to worry about.
Burnham’s BBQ phone alert sparks chaos as 999 is swamped with calls
Note his use of passive voice. It’s the difference between ‘It fell from my hands‘ and ‘I dropped it‘. Instead of ‘an emergency alert has been sent‘ how about ‘I authorised the emergency alert‘? Or perhaps even ‘I didn’t authorise it‘?
Note also him trying to shift the blame for the decision to broadcast the alert – again in passive voice: ‘The request came directly from fire and rescue services‘.
The alert text included: ‘Follow official updates and report signs of fire immediately by calling 999.‘ and then shock and surprise when people phone 999 to grass up the neighbour they hate for having another BBQ.
Apparently the current system was a Prime Ministerial initiative started in 2020
Yes, and I knew then that it would soon be abused.
Of course having been inundated by alarmist media broadcasts, News reports of fires, it being all over the social media, but for the emergency alert we wouldn’t have known about it.
Given that I don’t watch TV, that stupid alert was the only way they could contact me, short of sending round someone from TV Licensing.
“Water companies to charge more during droughts”
Oh, Thats a great!
Why bother fixing the leaking infrastructure or building new water storage when leaving it well alone will increase occurrences of drought and make the water companies richer, Fantastic idea by our illustrious government!
Water company shareholders get richer as more profit is made. That means sell more water. Water that leaks into the ground doesn’t earn profit. Not supplying enough water to meet demand, ie in reading sales, does not earn profit. Putting prices up reduces consumption and therefore reduces profit.
All resources are scarce and must be rationed. The best and fairest way is the free market supply/demand/price mechanism. When demand exceeds supply, prices go up and demand falls. Or have no water – like there were no bog rolls during Covid because stores didn’t increase prices to stop panic buying, hoarding.
Alternatively we can have forced rationing – hosepipe bans, and/or water supply available only for so many hours a day.
Fixing leaks takes money. Price caps prevent water companies getting the revenue they need to cover costs. Yes, yes, filthy profits, CEOs salaries, blah, blah, blah.
The facts remain: regulation and price caps have a cost and are preventing water companies from being able to build infrastructure to separate surface drainage from sewage, replace 100 year old infrastructure, extract enough water – no new reservoirs allowed.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/14/world/europe/russia-moldova-putin.html?searchResultPosition=2
‘Russian President Vladimir Putin told senior officials that Moscow’s goal for 2026 was the “collapse of NATO and the EU from within,” Putin outlined the goal during a secret briefing with senior Russian officials late last year.
Russia…spent hundreds of millions of euros looking to elect politicians dependent on the Kremlin and individuals linked to the criminal underworld.
The operation…included training camps in Serbia, Bosnia and Russia, where Moldovans were recruited and, in some cases, trained to provoke unrest. Western intelligence officials linked some of the training to Russia’s GRU military intelligence service.
Moscow views Moldova as a potential foothold for operations against both Ukraine and Europe, while Putin still hopes to seize territory across southern Ukraine that would create a land bridge to the country.’
Why do you bother?
“Putin still hopes to seize territory across southern Ukraine that would create a land bridge to the country.”
What a great plan! Another five years of war, a few million corpses and he will have a land bridge to Moldova…!
Wow!
Clearly, this Putin guy is pure genius!
I don’t think the EU needs any help from Mr Putin it’s doing a fine job of self-immolation already.
Can’t see why Putin would waste the energy, given that the EU is dismantling its worthwhile bits year on year.
Er, no. Not soft bigotry. Outright racism. Blatant discrimination.
If it was the other way around and white people were being favoured, we can be sure they wouldn’t be calling it “soft bigotry”
We need to abandon this moral bankruptcy quickly or we are gong to destroy our society.
We don’t accept this kind of behaviour in any other instance. We don’t think that the solution to bad behaviour is bad behaviour in response.
But it’s worse. There is no more racism against black people. All the things that are supposedly being corrected simply don’t exist. It’s a fantasy.
The current generation of white people are being punished for some wrongs of generations long gone. And the people receiving this positive discrimination haven’t suffered any wrong at all.
It’s madness and needs to stop.
“There is no way to disarm any man except through guilt. Through that which he himself has accepted as guilt. If a man has ever stolen a dime, you can impose on him the punishment intended for a bank robber and he will take it. He’ll bear any form of misery, he’ll feel that he deserves no better.
If there is not enough guilt in the world, we must create it. If we teach a man that it’s evil to look at spring flowers and he believes us and then does it, we’ll be able to do whatever we please with him. He won’t defend himself. He won’t feel he’s worth it ”
From Atlas Shrugged.