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The meningitis outbreak is exposing the new world of post-Covid anxiety

The infection is not a random airborne hazard. There will not be a national epidemic Daily Telegraph 17/03/26 The Covid pandemic has left a heightened state of anxiety about any outbreak of infectious disease. This is easily inflated into mass panic, as we are seeing with the outbreak of meningitis among young people in the Canterbury area. Health Secretary Wes Streeting has gone as far as saying it is “unprecedented”. It isn’t. Yes, meningitis is a potentially serious, and – as we have tragically seen in recent days – even fatal infection, but it is well understood. Responses should be proportionate. An inflammation of tissues surrounding the brain, it can be caused by several viruses and bacteria. The bacteria are quite common in the UK population – around 10 per cent of us carry them at any one time. That figure is perhaps 20 per cent for teenagers and young people. These bacteria are transmitted by prolonged or close contact, such as sharing a household or kissing. People li...
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Landlords leave BTL sector even as rental yields increase

Property Industry Eye 11/03/26 With rental supply remaining tight across the capital, London’s buy-to-let market is presenting renewed opportunities for investors, with rents and yields rising in several parts of the city. That is according to Jeremy Leaf, a north London estate agent and former residential chairman of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. He said: “Conditions for letting property are favourable at present given the level of stock being sold and demand remaining strong in most areas, so many longer-term landlords are taking advantage.” However, Leaf added that many landlords are choosing to leave the market rather than benefit from current conditions, citing tighter regulation and higher taxes – a trend reflected in the latest Savills report, which found that the UK’s private rented sector recorded its largest value decline this century in 2025, falling by £48bn. Leaf explained: “The reason why many are leaving the sector is the looming Renters’ Rights Ac...
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Rural Britain is at breaking point, and Labour just doesn’t care

Everywhere you go outside of the cities, you can feel the impact of Starmer’s policies Daily Telegraph 15/03/26 The narrative goes that Sir Keir Starmer is the most un-ideological Prime Minister that Britain has ever had. Try telling that to its rural communities. While the government has been buffeted around by a series of economic, diplomatic and internal crises, one part of its agenda appears to have remained perfectly consistent since the last General Election: a committed and unrelenting campaign to render rural life unviable. If one was in a forgiving mood, you might put it down to ignorance. Not a single member of Starmer’s cabinet represents a rural seat. Labour’s voter base is predominantly urban. For a Prime Minister who by own admission prefers the society of Davos’s “anywheres” to fellow countrymen and women in Parliament, England’s green and pleasant land and its inhabitants are unlikely to hold any particular charm. Perhaps the war on neighbourhood planning, or the...
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How the Left’s love-in with Islam will change Britain

Recent attempts by Labour and the Greens to appeal to Muslim voters reflect a major demographic shift that goes beyond politics Daily Telegraph Sam Ashworth-Hayes 14 March 2026 6:00am GMT The central principle of democracy is that power is vested in the people and expressed by their elected representatives. We expect that governments will seek to align themselves with the views and opinions of the people, while protecting the views and opinions of minorities. Yet Britain is currently demonstrating a different phenomenon: at times, and under the right circumstances, governments are seeking to align themselves with the views and opinions of minorities while failing to protect the views and opinions of the people. Take this Labour Government, which at present appears to be in a blind panic. With local elections approaching, Sir Keir Starmer and his colleagues are desperate to win back the approval of Muslim voters they had long taken for granted. The results of this risk going b...
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How Reform became Britain’s richest party

Two years ago, Farage had fewer donations than the Communists. Now, after a blitz of defections, his war chest has eclipsed his rivals’ As he filmed his 2024 New Year’s Eve message in the opulent surroundings of Blenheim Palace, Nigel Farage had much to feel optimistic about. The Reform leader could look back on 12 months that saw his nascent party come of age, as his return from political retirement culminated in a Commons breakthrough. Under his renewed leadership, it had leapfrogged the Liberal Democrats into third place in votes received in that year’s general election and crucially returned five MPs, himself included. It was the bar that Farage had tried – and conspicuously failed – to clear so many times throughout his years at the head of the UK Independence Party (Ukip). But even as he spoke proudly about that “bridgehead” in Parliament, the veteran campaigner knew that his latest upstart movement had a problem on its hands. For he was acutely aware that in the three month...
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Labour scrambles to save digital ID plans with ‘people’s panel’

Party to launch eight-week consultation in last ditch attempt to garner public support for policy Daily Telegraph 10/03/26 Labour is setting up a “people’s panel” on digital ID in a last-ditch attempt to turn public opinion in favour of the policy. Ministers have started an eight-week consultation on plans to create a new digital ID for government services, which were watered down after a rebellion of Labour MPs. Darren Jones, the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, has pledged to create a system of “Government by app” and compared the service to the introduction of online banking. Ministers will also run a “people’s panel” on the policy, which the Government said would “bring together people across the country from different backgrounds” to have “in-depth discussions” and find “ways to move forward”. The panel will be formed of 100 randomly selected people from across the country in an attempt to secure public support for the policy after months of criticism. Polling shows...
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Mandleson has crippledthe Government

Telegraph Politics 11/03/26 The signs that this tranche of Peter Papers would be politically combustible were there at PMQs, two hours before release. Keir Starmer repeatedly tried to emphasise his superior judgment in a series of fiery exchanges with Kemi Badenoch. He came to the bear pit determined to lambast the Leader of the Opposition for making the wrong call on joining the US-Israeli strikes on Iran and to accuse her of political caprice. Badenoch simply wanted to press him on fuel duty – a sensible line of attack given mounting public concern over the economic fallout from the Iran conflict. Starmer’s real message was that, when it matters – war – his judgment is sound. Puffing himself up, he took on the Statesman cosplay. The public should see him as a steady hand: serious, forensic, with solid instincts. Unfortunately the Mandelson files have swiftly trashed that claim. What they show, in black and white, is that the risks surrounding the appointment were not obscure, hid...
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