Absolutely Not The Daily Troll-o-Graph

Time is running out for Miliband to find the investment needed for his renewable goals Source - Daily Telegraph 31/07/24 Link Labour’s heady bid to make Britain a “clean energy superpower” has already run into cold reality, barely days into the Starmer-Reeves era. The Government has nudged up the operating buffer for this year’s AR6 auction of fixed offshore wind contracts to £1.1bn but this is still not nearly enough to underpin the goal of quadrupling offshore wind to 60 gigawatts (GW) by 2030. Time is already running out, given the six to eight-year lag time for offshore wind farms. Unless this buffer is backed by serious money, Labour has no chance of hitting its target of 100pc clean power in six years. It is the test case for the credibility of Ed Miliband, the plenipotentiary of Energy Security and Net Zero. Britain’s policy of covering the wind auction budget by tacking it on to electricity bills is untenable and destructive now that wind is the backbone of the system, and elec...

Daily Telegraph 31/07/24 Huw Edwards, the former leading BBC presenter, has pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography, including one image of a child believed to be as young as seven years old. Edwards, 62, who left the corporation last year, admitted at Westminster magistrates court on Wednesday morning to possessing 41 indecent images, seven of which are Category A, the most serious. Edwards wearing a dark blue suit, light blue shirt and white shirt, pleaded guilty to having seven Category A images, 12 category B images and 22 Category C images. Standing in the centre of glass-panelled dock, Edwards, in a loud clear voice, confirmed his name, address and date of birth during the 26-minute long hearing. Edwards ‘could get suspended sentence’ Prosecutor Ian Hope told the court that a suspended sentence might be considered for Edwards. Setting out the potential penalties under the law, he said that where there is the prospect of rehabilitation a community order and sexual offender ...

To pretend ‘the books’ are worse than expected is not just shameless, it’s an insult to the British public Source - Daily Telegraph - 28/07/24 Link Nick Timothy 28 July 2024 • 7:00pm ‘We have fully costed, fully funded plans,” Labour told the country during the election campaign. “Nothing in our plans requires any additional tax to be increased.” Ramming home that message, Rachel Reeves promised every Labour policy was “fully funded and fully costed – no ifs, no ands, no buts … no additional tax rises”. In total, Labour pledged not to put up taxes at least 50 times before polling day. But in private, it appears it was planning to do exactly that. Labour’s secret plans were leaked to the Guardian in June, with party sources saying that, once in power, Reeves would claim to be surprised by her inheritance and seek a “doctor’s mandate”, increasing taxes across the board. The sources said she would take a “kitchen sink” approach to tax rises, but admitted, “that is not what they are presen...

After years of ruthless self-interest, the sector faces a long overdue rationalisation Source - Daily Telegraph - 23/07/24 There is only one appropriate reaction to the news that universities are in crisis, with 40pc set to run deficits this year: “Good. Now let them go bust.” The expansion of the university sector has been a disaster for students. Far too many young people are promised prestige and prosperity in exchange for years of fees and study, only to emerge with a degree so devalued that they end up financially worse off. It’s been a disaster for taxpayers, who pour money into a system that destroys economic value. And perhaps most of all, it’s been a disaster for the universities that shredded their academic standards in exchange for the right to function as visa mills. Let’s start with the students. The expansion of higher education was supposed to herald a new age of prosperity for Britain, giving us a workforce fit for the new “knowledge economy”. Announcing his target for ...

His ‘personal ambition’, his lust for power and his epic self-regard meant that he refused to give way until he had no choice Source - Daily Telegraph 25/07/24 Link ‘Imade some mistakes,” said Joe Biden. “But now, the exaggerated shadow of those mistakes has begun to obscure the essence of my candidacy and the essence of Joe Biden.” That was in 1987, when the then Senator had to quit his presidential campaign after being caught plagiarising speeches by Neil Kinnock, Bobby Kennedy and John F Kennedy. Last night, for the first time since his announcement on Sunday that he is withdrawing from the 2024 presidential election, Biden addressed the nation from behind the Resolute Desk. “I’ve decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation,” he said. Appropriately enough, that was another line ripped off from John F Kennedy’s inaugural address. Biden is now a shadow of his former self, yet his essence remains. He didn’t talk about mistakes this time. Yet his capacity for s...

Teaching children that the world revolves around them and their whims lays the groundwork for their future careers as activists Source - Daily Telegraph - 25/07/24 Link It’s not hard to poke fun at today’s cohort of climate activists. The sheer number of double-barrelled names makes writing jokes feel too easy. But what isn’t so funny is watching the whining from these posh protesters when faced with the consequences of their actions. Just Stop Oil protester Cressida Gethin, 22, arrives at Isleworth Crown Court in London I am die-hard when it comes to the freedom to protest. I’d like to see the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act repealed and the talk of buffer zones around political offices squashed. It’s outrageous that citizens now have to prove to police officers that they’re being the right level of “noisy” to freely challenge our political leaders.  I even think five years for the Just Stop Oil brigade is too harsh – setting a dangerous precedent for the future of politi...

 Chancellor urged to impose flat 30pc rate of tax relief, raising levy for higher rate payers Source - Daily Telegraph 23/07/24 Rachel Reeves will be urged to raid the pension savings of up to 6m middle-class workers in plans presented by Treasury officials ahead of her first Budget. The Chancellor is expected to consider a proposal for a flat 30pc rate of pension tax relief – meaning that higher rate payers will pay an effective 10pc tax charge on their retirement contributions for the first time. The plan would affect up to 6m higher and additional rate taxpayers, costing the wealthiest savers around £2,600. Ms Reeves has spoken in favour of restricting relief on pensions but has since distanced herself from the proposals, insisting she has “no plans” to change the current regime. Pension contributions are tax deductible. This means that basic rate payers get a relief equal to 20pc of their payments to cancel out the income tax that would otherwise be due. Higher rate payers – th...

We must hold the new Government to account, and that starts with insisting on honesty about the nation’s finances Source - Daily Telegraph - 21/07/24 Labour must start being honest. Since arriving at HM Treasury, the Labour Party have done all they can to try and pretend they are inheriting a previously unknown and malign economic legacy from the Conservatives. This is dimly predictable, but simply not true. The economy is very clearly turning a corner, and anyway Labour made their promises during the election in full knowledge of the economic situation, and to pretend otherwise in the words of Paul Johnson from the IFS “simply won’t wash”. Let’s first examine the realities of the economic situation. It is of course true that we are in the aftermath of two generational economic shocks, the pandemic and the energy price spike caused by Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine. But despite that, the UK has the fastest growing economy in the G7, with inflation on target, business investment growing...

Source - Capx - 21/07/24 Link The world must think we’re bloody weird. As with many of our ancient traditions, there’s something slightly absurd about the King’s Speech. There’s a striking juxtaposition in the monarch, ensconced in diamond encrusted finery, sounding off about newfangled policy areas like artificial intelligence. But regardless of the aesthetic contradictions, there was nothing all that surprising about the content of the speech itself. Economic growth, as promised, is at the centre of Labour’s agenda. Quite right. For far too long, UK growth has remained stagnant. A grim combination of record taxation, high public spending and lacklustre investment in infrastructure means that this year’s projected growth rate is a measly 1.1%. This puts us behind a number of our G7 peers and towards the bottom of the OECD. So it was welcome that the speech reaffirmed Labour’s commitment to planning reform – a decidedly pro-growth move. As Freddie Poser wrote in CapX this week, Yimbys ...

 The Democratic party have aired its dirty laundry for the world to see. Voters may not treat them kindly Source - Daily Telegraph 21/07/24 Joe Biden has quit the presidential race; Kamala Harris gets his endorsement. To paraphrase the vice president, now we get to imagine what the Democratic ticket could be, unburdened by what was. Alas, the pair have left it too late to act. The Democratic Party’s reputation, either for compassion or brutal competence, is already damaged. Biden would still be in the running but for four critical developments. First, his June 27 debate against Donald Trump, which exposed to the world what insiders had known for months: he is physically and mentally in decline. Second, the attempted assassination of the Republican nominee on July 13, which has softened public attitudes towards Trump.  The whole point of debating Trump in the summer rather than the autumn was to remind voters how dislikable he can be. On the contrary, it painted him as the more...

The president’s last ditch attempts to woo the Left follow a career pattern of terrible political decision making Source - Daily Telegraph 18/07/24 Link When Ernest Hemingway wrote that bankruptcy happens in two ways – “gradually then suddenly” – he can hardly have foreseen that 98 years later, his words would neatly describe the decline of the Democratic leadership of America. Joe Biden has Covid. This latest indignity comes after a woeful period that started with the toe-curling presidential debate, progressed through the “vice president Trump” and “President Putin” gaffes, and ended with the attempted assassination of his rival, which may have succeeded only in killing Biden’s campaign. On top of all this, even more influential democrats – including Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, Adam Schiff, a close ally of Nancy Pelosi, and Hakeem Jeffries, the party’s top representative in the House – have lined up to pressure him to step down. Is Biden’s precarious pyramid of power on the...

Roger Hallam handed record sentence after being found guilty of conspiring to block traffic on the M25 Source - Daily Telegraph 18/07/24 Link The co-founder of Extinction Rebellion has been given a record five-year prison sentence after a judge said he had “crossed the line from concerned campaigner to fanatic”. Roger Hallam was found guilty of conspiring to block traffic as part of a Just Stop Oil campaign on the M25 over four days of disruption in November 2022. The Attorney General was under pressure on Thursday night to intervene over the sentences meted out to Mr Hallam, who also set up Just Stop Oil, and his co-conspirators, which are the longest for non-violent protest in living memory. Four other eco-activists were each given four-year sentences after they were found guilty of conspiring to block traffic on the M25. The sentences were welcomed by Tory MPs, but widely condemned by celebrities Chris Packham and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and green campaigners including Labour’s ...

There is no ‘change’. It will continue transforming the UK into a big state, low-growth, low-energy nation Source - Daily Telegraph 17/07/24 David Frost Labour called its manifesto “Change”. It campaigned for “change”. Yet there was no change of direction in the King’s Speech. Quite the opposite. Insofar as it was a plan for anything, it was to continue transforming Britain into a big government, low-growth, low-energy corporatist state.  That direction of travel has been set at least since the Gordon Brown years. Fourteen years of Tory-led government and Brexit may have given us the powers to get on to a different track, but they were not exercised. Instead, we have moved ever further towards more collectivism and more government control, and nothing we heard from the King or Sir Keir Starmer yesterday alters that.  Indeed, as if to underline it, our new “change” Government has picked up several Bills from its Conservative predecessor, and all bad ones: to ban smoking (a flag...

Border security and renters’ rights play key role in Prime Minister’s plan for Government, but Lords retirement age absent from list Source - Daily Telegraph  Here is everything included in the King’s Speech, along with some notable exceptions. Border security A Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill gives Sir Keir’s Border Security Command powers to use counter-terrorism-style powers to investigate and smash the people-smuggling gangs. Tougher penalties will be introduced for advertising people-smuggling services and supplying materials to organised crime gangs, such as boats, motors and safety belts. The King’s Speech confirms the new command will be funded by scrapping the Rwanda deportation scheme, which will save £100 million in future payments and “tens of millions of pounds” that would have been paid for relocated migrants. It also pledges to clear the backlog of asylum claims including some 90,000 migrants who would have been sent to Rwanda and end the use of hotels t...

 The PM may be the son of a toolmaker, but he’s wedded to the worst ideas of our woke, green elites. Source - Spiked - 16/07/24 Link ‘My dad was a toolmaker.’ So frequently did Keir Starmer repeat this line in the run-up to the UK General Election that, by the time of the Sky News debate in mid-June, mention of his dad’s job prompted laughter from the audience. Now that he’s prime minister, the phrase lives on as an oft-repeated social-media joke. Despite some having questioned whether Starmer Sr really was a horny-handed son of toil, Keir stuck with this man-of-the people backstory because it supposedly revealed his working-class credentials. He is not the only Labour bigwig getting in on this act. Everyone knows by now that deputy PM Angela Rayner grew up in a council house and worked in a care home. Likewise, health secretary Wes Streeting says he was raised in a working-class family and had ‘retail jobs’ throughout his youth. Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds describes himse...