- “Will the BBC apologise for its role in the Jason Arday story?” – The BBC has neither apologised for its role in promoting the Jason Arday myth nor acknowledged its failure to scrutinise his claims more closely, writes Steven Edginton in the Spectator.
- “Burnham strips responsibility for economic growth from the Treasury” – Andy Burnham has stripped responsibility for economic growth from the Treasury and handed it to No 10 North, says the Mail.
- “Labour doesn’t understand how money works” – The public sector produces no meaningful growth, yet it is the one getting the inflation-busting pay rise, notes Michael Simmons in the Telegraph.
- “Burnham’s £345k in donations… plus Aintree and Glastonbury tickets” – Andy Burnham accepted £345,000 in donations over the past year, with Labour donor Lord Sainsbury and party grandee Lord Blunkett among those who gave him cash, reports the Mail.
- “Cash will make up just 4% of all payments in Britain by 2035” – The pace of the decline of cash use in Britain slowed in 2025, but is on course to dwindle further in the next 10 years, according to the Mail.
- “Prisons running out of space despite early releases” – The number of spare places in men’s prisons has fallen below 1,800 for the first time since Labour took office, reports the Telegraph.
- “White pupils most likely to take no GCSEs” – For the first time on record, white children are the ethnicity most likely to enter no GCSEs, reports the Telegraph.
- “Labour-run Islington council chooses traveller pitches over social housing” – A Labour-run council is opting to build new traveller pitches instead of desperately needed social housing, reveals the Telegraph.
- “Council leader calls for travellers to be prosecuted for fly-tipping” – A council leader has called for travellers to be prosecuted for fly-tipping after a “trail of destruction” was left in a public park, reports the Mail.
- “The British institutions defying the Supreme Court’s trans ruling” – From the NHS to local councils, the state is siding with activists at the expense of the law, says the Telegraph. But gender-critical women are fighting back.
- “Andy Burnham says Britain ‘supports Ukraine 100%’” – Andy Burnham says he will continue “to support Ukraine 100%” after Moscow warned Britain would “pay” following confirmation that UK-made drones were used in recent strikes on Russia, according to the Mail.
- “Russians pull billions from banks over fears Putin will raid savings” – Russians are withdrawing billions from domestic banks amid mounting fears that Putin could seize deposits to fund his war in Ukraine, reports the Mail.
- “Iran’s mullahs ‘are considering attacks on European military targets’” – Iran is reportedly weighing strikes on US military targets in Europe should Trump escalate hostilities, says the Mail.
- “Portugal bans full-face veils under ‘burqa law’” – Portugal has outlawed full-face coverings under legislation the Government says is designed to protect “human identity”, reports the Mail.
- “Germany abandons 9,000 deportations after losing track of migrants” – Germany was forced to abandon nearly 9,000 deportations this year because state authorities lost track of migrants, according to the Telegraph.
- “Disney sues Trump administration in free speech row” – Disney has sued the Trump administration in an escalating row between the White House and the media over free speech, says the Telegraph.
- “Ex-Fauci aide hid Covid emails about bat experiments” – A former senior adviser to Anthony Fauci has pleaded guilty to plotting to conceal federal records related to research on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to ABC News.
- “A load of viral agents are on the way” – According to UK Health Security, a deadly wave of viral agents is on its way, write Dr Tom Jefferson and Prof Carl Heneghan on the TTE Substack.
- “Doctor’s AI receptionist can’t understand Yorkshire accent” – Patients at a GP surgery in Rotherham are struggling to get care because its AI receptionist keeps failing to understand their Yorkshire accents, reports the Telegraph.
- “Meta exploited children by making platforms addictive, trial hears” – A US federal court has heard that Meta knew its platforms were addictive to children but deliberately designed them to keep them hooked, says the Mail.
- “Rail officials to investigate role of heatwave in train derailment” – Rail officials are set to examine what part the summer heatwave played in last week’s East Sussex train derailment, according to the Telegraph.
- “Households brace for surging energy bills this winter” – Household energy bills are on course to soar to their highest level in three years, wiping out any savings from Andy Burnham’s VAT cut on electricity, says the Telegraph.
- “Tories pledge to scrap ban on diesel lorries” – The Conservatives are promising to reverse Government plans that would ban sales of new HGVs weighing up to 26 tonnes from 2035 unless they meet Net Zero requirements, reports the Telegraph.
- “EU green tax to hit British farmers” – Farmers face a doubling of fertiliser prices when an EU Net Zero border tax is introduced in January, according to the Telegraph.
- “The FT says war and climate change spiked shipping costs: war, yes; weather, yes; climate change, no!” – In ClimateRealism, Linnea Lueken argues that the Financial Times is misleading readers by attributing spiking shipping costs to climate change when the data point firmly to war and weather as the real culprits.
- “Polls show no one cares about climate change” – US voters have decisively tuned out the climate change agenda, with recent polling showing it ranks at the bottom of public concerns, reports Breitbart.
- “The climate policy trap: why every failure leads to more policy” – In Clintel, Evert Doornhof notes that rising energy costs, grid congestion and industrial decline are met not with careful reconsideration, but with yet more climate policy, driven by institutional self-interest.
- “Woke Canadian town officially recognises trees as beings with rights” – A small town in Quebec has become the first public entity in North America to sign onto the Universal Declaration of Tree Rights, which argues that a tree is “a sentient living being”, reports the Mail. Does that apply to nut trees?
- “Why I sacked my company’s HR department” – Branded an ‘anti-woke hero’, Bolt founder Ryan Breslow tells Celia Walden in the Telegraph why he sacked his entire HR department and claims all his problems disappeared as a result.
- “There’s no future for a nation that hates its own history” – Confidence is collapsing in British culture and institutions, and only a restoration of pride in the nation’s past can reverse the decline, writes Robert Tombs in the Telegraph.
- “Why the ‘Be Kind’ brigade are so horrible” – In the Spectator, Patrick West argues that the bellicose intolerance of the progressive Left is wholly consistent with an idealistic worldview that has no room for genuine kindness.
- “I’m lucky I grew up in the 1970s – we were taught never to expect handouts” – My generation grew up fending for ourselves – and it’s helped us weather crisis after crisis, says the Telegraph.
- “I was branded satanic, but teachers loved my books” – In the Telegraph, Ed Power sits down with 76 year-old Ian Livingstone, who helped turn gaming from a geeky pastime into a global industry and now has Britain’s schools firmly in his sights.
- “Royal ship carrying Charles I’s treasure ‘found off Scotland’” – A 17th Century vessel believed to be carrying treasure worth millions of pounds has reportedly been located off the Scottish coast after decades of searching, reports the Telegraph.
- “Who’s really exploiting Jason Arday’s death?” – On the Spiked podcast, Esther Krakue, Tom Slater and Fraser Myers discuss the Left’s sinister plot to muzzle the free press in the wake of the Jason Arday scandal.
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“Andy Burnham has stripped responsibility for economic growth from the Treasury and handed it to No 10 North,”
What would any of these people know about economic growth? Growth comes from people working smarter or harder or new processes or devices or resources that are discovered or developed, things being done more efficiently, resources allocated better. Get out of the way! All we need is incentives which are provided by the market, and legal and regulatory stability.
Milton Friedman: if Givernment took over control of the Sahara, within five years there would be a shortage of sand.
As a Northumbrian – Bernician in fact – Manchester is NOT North, it’s Midlands.
Andy Capp – Ey oop – was the mayor of a provincial town who thinks he can run a Country in the same way.
Look what happened last time a mayor was elevated to running the Country – Bunter in No 10… didn’t he do well?
MODERATOR (and fellow Bernician) HERE
A new word for me, Bernicia, thank you. Not as much rape and pillage up there these days in that fabulous countryside, it’s moved darn sarf…
Manchester is most definitely not the north, and yes, Bunter was amusing but way out of his depth – they all are!
Yes, a new word for me, too: “Bernicia”, so I looked it up, and found this fantastic webpage about it, in case anybody’s interested:
Kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxons – Bernicia
People smuggler exposed by BBC investigation arrested and charged says Aunty
Khdir was given
a five-year jail sentencethe Ordre national de la Légion d’honneur in France in 2016, where authorities described him as one of the most successful people smugglers ever caught.Prosecutors said the Iraqi Kurd, aged 36 at the time, had earned up to £100,000 a week for moving illegal immigrants across the Channel.
FTFY
“Rail officials are set to examine what part the summer heatwave played in last week’s East Sussex train derailment, according to the Telegraph.”
It is a concern that the range of possible causes has so quickly been reduced to the issue of the day. Presumably they have, in just a few days, ruled out sabotage, maintenance or equipment failures, signalling and points failures, rolling stock failure.
Perhaps the recommendation in future years will be to avoid the train and use motor cars instead.
Buckling rails have been frequent over the years during hot Summers. It is nothing new. But of course it must be presented as such to add to the climate crisis clamour.
Rails in Britain are pre-stressed to cope with temperatures not exceeding 27C, in hot Countries it is higher.
Rails here cannot be pre-stressed for higher temperatures as this would cause problems during our cold Winters with rails cracking or breaking.
We used to know – but apparently have now forgot – Britain has a temperate climate with variable, quick changing weather, at times at the extremes of the average. These extremes when they occur do not indicate a change in the average.
This is why we are never prepared for the extremes because most of the time the weather is average and it would be too expensive to be ready for every once-every-now-and-then conditions.
May I add this appalling news to the Round-Up, as perhaps relevant to the future of the UK:
Harry beams after announcing he and Meghan will to move to UK in DAYS with Archie and Lilibet to attend British school: Surprised Royal camp says ‘no alteration’ to Megxit deal | Daily Mail Online
Some say this was Trump’s doing, while others wonder whether Treacherous Backstabber Harry will use the fastest, easiest way to become his father’s favourite son and win the support of what will soon be half the UK population: by secretly converting to Islam.
Will the Iranian Muslim adviser of Harry & his Ethnic African wife also be moving back to the UK? Then there are the two Muslim men, one Pakistani and then later an Egyptian, with whom Harry’s mother was romantically involved before her death, the memory of which may also have influenced his decision. And will Harry’s illegitimate surrogate-born offspring be quietly raised as Muslims, like Putin’s twin sons by their Muslim athlete mother? It all bodes very ill indeed for the principle heir to the throne and his family.
I recently visited Alnwick and I have read about the Percy family who have lived there for many generations. I hope the Charles – Harry issue does not get as violent as these things did in the past but an effective way must be found to prevent further erosion of respect for the Royal Family and institution. Governor of [somewhere far away with poor comms].
Thanks for that historical snippet, which made me look up the Percys and Alnwick — very interesting! As for your idea about what to do with Harry, I think it’s excellent! 🙂
“Rail officials to investigate role of heatwave in train derailment”
Interesting wording – surely the investigation should be aiming to find what caused the derailment, not how much it was the heat that caused it. It rather suggests that poor maintenance, briefly mentioned on the news, is not in the frame of the investigation.
Compare the charter of the IPCC, set up not to research climate change, but to research how humans have caused it.
Scott Adams spoke a lot about “talking past the sale” as a powerful persuasion technique. It basically implies ignoring a questionable fundamental premise and going straight to the implication of the premise.
If you can get someone talking directly about the implications, you’re more than half way to persuading them of the initial premise.
The government does this all the time.
What drastic measures do we need to take to stop the spread of this incredibly dangerous disease? – jumps right over the question of whether the disease is that dangerous in the first place.
How do we get everyone vaccinated? – jumps over the question of whether the vaccine is needs or useful in the first place.
How do we make a more equal society? – side steps the questions of whether we can or should be engineering a more equal society.
How do we make our society “carbon neutral” – wait, what? What’s wrong with carbon?
And on and on. One fundamental question after another completely bypassed.
One witness said he saw a large signalboard warning of problems with the track ahead, but the train just kept going at speed, even after three carriages were derailed and being dragged along with rubble and vegetation scraped off and piled into the windows. Tracks do reportedly buckle in high heat, but I hope the driver will also be investigated for going too fast for conditions.
The RAIB report says the train was travelling less than the maximum speed limit and the brakes were applied as the train approached the site of subsequent derailment.
“And for the “nationalise everything enthusiasts, the track and infrastructure has been nationalised since 2002 when the private company Railtrack was taken over by Government, and the State-owned Network Rail took over infrastructure and responsibility for its maintenance.
EU green tax to hit British farmers
Food security. Still, at least we can be sure of fertiliser and food imports from our friendly EU neighbours…
That’s quite the turnaround from a few years ago when full face coverings were obligatory – and apparently not a threat of any kind to “human identity”.
You know you’re in an abusive relationship when you get a beating for one thing one moment and a beating for the exact opposite the next.
The real problem of course is the vast majority just shrugging and thinking nothing of it.