- “Watchdog investigates 70 charities over ‘anti-Semitism and extremism’” – The Charity Commission is investigating 70 organisations for alleged extremism or antisemitism relating to the Israel-Hamas conflict, the Telegraph reports.
- “Hamas forced Mia Schem to say on camera how ‘kind’ they were” – Released hostage Mia Schem was compelled to parrot Hamas propaganda praising her captors before she was released, reveals the Mail.
- “Jewish students ‘faced Hitler jokes’ at London university” – Jewish students at London’s Queen Mary University reportedly faced Hitler jokes and threats from fellow students, according to the Times.
- “Trans refugee who waved sign reading ‘Israel burn in hell’ fined £100” – A court has heard that a trans refugee from Saudi Arabia, who waved a sign at a pro-Palestine rally calling for Israel to “burn in hell”, found the placard at a bus stop and didn’t understand what it said, reports the Mail.
- “U-turn for London Council that cancelled lighting Hanukkah candles” – Havering Council has backtracked on its decision not to erect a menorah outside its town hall after a meeting between council leaders and Jewish groups, says the Mail.
- “Can the media trust this doctor in Gaza?” – Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah’s impartiality is in question, argues Nicole Lampert in UnHerd.
- “The West must not prevent Israel from crushing Hamas” – The terrorists will repeat the pogroms of October 7th if they are not stopped, says the Telegraph in a leading article.
- “United Nations of hypocrites” – In the Spectator Australia, Ramesh Thakur throws shade on the UN for its shameful silence on the rape and murder of Jewish women.
- “Gaza and the asymmetry trap” – The defeat of Hamas is a moral necessity, but that does not obviate Israel’s responsibility to minimise civilian suffering, writes Michael Walzer in Quillette.
- “Why the far Left sides with Hamas” – The global Left ‘fellow travels’ with radical Islam rather than supports it, says Nick Cohen in the Spectator.
- “‘There’s nothing mystical about the idea that ideas change history’” – Quillette’s Matt Johnson sits down with Steven Pinker to discuss international politics, AI, religion and the October 7th atrocities.
- “The New Zealand vaccine data” – There is now no doubt the Covid vaccine is increasing the mortality rate in older people, says Prof. Norman Fenton on Substack.
- “The Covid Inquiry is asking the wrong questions” – If most politicians broke their own lockdown rules, was it really the right approach, asks Kevin Bardosh in UnHerd.
- “The Hallett Inquiry: Eminence-based medicine Part 7” – Dr. Tom Jefferson and Prof. Carl Heneghan present the seventh in their series of posts focussing on the evidence given to the Covid Inquiry by the Chief Scientific Advisor Prof. Dame Angela McLean.
- “The WHO is attempting to become a global health dictatorship ” – On Wide Awake Media, Dr. Meryl Nass explains how the WHO’s proposed pandemic treaty is a totalitarian power grab by unelected globalists.
- “Foreign criminals will serve shorter sentences than Britons under emergency plan” – Foreign prisoners will serve shorter sentences than Britons under an emergency Government measure to cut prison overcrowding, reports the Telegraph.
- “How Nigel Farage’s I’m a Celebrity run is making the Tories nervous” – Nigel Farage’s Reform Party is now polling higher than it was before he went into the jungle, says the Times.
- “Nigel Farage’s plan for power” – Reform U.K. wants to crush the Tories, writes Tom McTague in UnHerd.
- “A misogynist foreign state must not be allowed to own the Telegraph” – The Telegraph has a proud history of promoting women’s voices, says Camilla Tominey. It has to continue in that vein.
- “Ireland has descended into anarcho-tyranny, and we’re following suit” – When the public senses a double standard in policing and justice, the social order is at stake, warns Louise Perry in the Telegraph.
- “Irish Justice Minister To Grant Police Sweeping Powers To Intercept Private Conversations on Social Media Sites Under New Legislation” – The Irish police is about to get new, wide-ranging powers to spy on people’s private online conversations happening via chat apps to “crack down on crime” after last week’s events in Dublin, reports Reclaim the Net.
- “Bild newspaper sounds startling warning about Germany’s migrant crisis” – Under the front-page headline: ‘Germany, we have a problem!’, Europe’s best-selling tabloid has published a highly controversial 50-point manifesto telling migrants how to behave, reports the Mail.
- “New Zealand’s Right-wing Government scraps major Jacinda Ardern policies” – New Zealand’s new Right-wing Government has unveiled plans to scrap scores of Jacinda Ardern’s policies as it turns the page on her time in office, says the Telegraph.
- “Democrats defend censorship and push Hunter Biden conspiracy theory” – On the Public Substack, Michael Shellenberger shares highlights from another congressional hearing on censorship.
- “MPs will be helped to spot conspiracy theories” – The House of Commons Library is offering to help MPs spot conspiracy theories at the behest of Penny Mordaunt, according to the Telegraph.
- “Britain will lead push to triple nuclear power with 22 signatories” – Britain will look to “lead a pledge” to triple nuclear power output as part of a push to reach Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, says the Mail.
- “Fair COP? Or will the latest climate summit be another festival of eco-extremism?” – COP28 looks set to introduce further bizarre eco-zealotry into the climate conversation, writes Tom Ryan in CapX.
- “The problem with climate protesting clergy” – The Spectator’s Fergus Butler-Gallie questions the motives of the climate activists who disrupted Evensong in Chichester.
- “NAS study raises concern over offshore wind harming endangered whales” – The National Academy of Sciences has warned that offshore wind turbines are harming the endangered North Atlantic Right Whale, according to CFACT.
- “Digital pound plans should proceed with caution, say MPs” – According to MPs, the benefits of a digital pound are currently unclear but the Government should keep exploring it, reports the BBC.
- “Fox’s tweet would not ‘lead anyone to think he’s racist’, trial hears” – A libel trial has heard that nothing in Laurence Fox’s tweet criticising Sainsbury’s celebrating Black History Month would lead anyone to the honest opinion that he was racist, says the Mail.
- “When did publishers stop caring what their readers actually want?” – Publishers seem to care more about pandering to their ‘woke’ staff than the literary merit of the books they publish, writes Joanna Williams in the Spectator.
- “‘Deadnaming’ a trans person using their birth name is a ‘violent act’” – MIT professors were told during sexual harassment training that calling a transgender person by their birth name is a “violent act”, according to the Mail.
- “Allison Pearson reveals what she would call her book now” – Careers are great, writes Allison Pearson in the Mail, but babies are the best.
- “Sam Altman appears to admit he was ousted over fears about doomsday AI” – Sam Altman lends credence to the theory that he was fired from OpenAI over his company’s super powerful, secret new AI system that he helped to build, reports the Mail.
- “I’d wave a wand and give everyone the First Amendment if I could” – Philosopher Sam Harris talks about free speech, Islam and the future of the media with Evening Standard proprietor Evgeny Lebedev.
- “Freezing weather halts flights bound for COP28” – Heavy snow and ice has frozen private jets in Munich bound for Dubai’s ‘global warming’ conference. From the ‘You couldn’t make it up’ department.
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Councils will politely tell the Minister to foxtrot oscar and carry on regardless. Nobody but the most gullible are fooled by these statements.
Agreed. They know they need only wait a few months for sir-kneeler to become PM. Then they’ll feel empowered to hire twice as many political commissars and hang the expense.
What an unpleasant prospect.
Quite, just another word salad straight out of the Rishi Sunak book of “words speak louder than action”. Or, as my mother would have put it: “Fine words butter no parsnips.”
It has been her party that has institutionalised wokery into every workplace in the country.
Don’t believe one word she utters, nor any of the Braverman, Patel, Mogg, Redwood, Davies, Anderson gang – they are all peeing in the same pot.
Too little too late. Tories failed for decades on all the big issues.
“Tories failed for decades on all the big issues.”
Now, now tof what Ms McVey is talking about is hardly a big issue, it’s pissing in the wind stuff. And knowing how councils work I can guarantee that away days for the “directors” will not disappear because Ms McVey has directed it to be so. This sort of expense will simply be filed under something reasonable and innocuous like ‘staff training.’ Now who could argue against staff training?
The real waste in council expenditure is Directors pensions which in the case of our local council is costing millions. If Ms McVey really wanted to achieve something useful for residents she would take a chainsaw to that largesse along with the numbers employed as ‘Directors.’
Quite frankly I believe McVey has insulted the electorate with this paltry nonsense. The cost saving apparently amounts to £67,000 per council – so what?
McVey needs to keep her head down because conning the public with faux cost-cutting measures will get her nowhere. The Tories are toast now anyway at the next election – if we have one – although it is difficult not to believe that their destruction is not being deliberately orchestrated.
Indeed just a sop to try and fool voters into thinking they are conservative. And McVey is one of the less bad ones.
“And McVey is one of the less bad ones.”
Aye, and she’s nice on the eye.
Redwood, Patel, Braverman, Davies, Anderson, Mogg, Anderson et al are all out the same fake mould. They all take the whip at the end of the day.
This may be true. But when each council, on average, employs 2 EDI people at an average salary of £33500/ year, these posts should certainly just DIE.
If we want to truly cut waste in all area’s of government and public sector this would be an extremely long response, and I’d still be typing on Monday.
But, just for starters, cut out all the BS related to Net Zero and Green energy, scrap the pointless Covid enquiry and commission a “proper” one, using a few notables from here for starters.
I have a life, so I’ll leave it at that for now!
I’m intrigued to read this report about local government spending.
https://www.tussell.com/regional-spending-report
I’m torn. Will it be a whitewash or a greenwash?
Apparently you can download it for free (which always makes me suspicious). If anyone gets the time, do share its contents.
Or the Government could just scrap (or amend) the Equality Act and make the whole nonsense stop completely.
But they’d rather posture.
Have Tory MPs been asleep for 14 years or are they desperate to save themselves from oblivion.
Both.