Absolutely Not The Daily Troll-o-Graph

The Prime Minister’s dismal track record suggests he will just keep pushing us closer to the precipice Daily Telegraph 29/12/25 Isabel Oakeshott Mad as it sounds, I am beginning to wonder how far we are from serious civil disorder. Outside a migrant hotel in Canary Wharf, a protestor put it succinctly. “The UK is a volcano ready to go bang… We are one incident away from the country erupting. No matter where it’s at in the UK, the entire nation will go off…. People have had enough,” he said. He thinks voters are angry at being ignored, gaslit, lied to, and exploited that the country is heading for something “tenfold worse” than the civil unrest Southport unleashed. The sight of our Prime Minister saying his top priority is to import a racist, anti-Semitic, Brit-hating thug called El Fattah feels like a defining moment. Such rhetoric is easy to dismiss. Reaching for the usual lazy characterisations and smears, our leaders will talk of the rabble rousing of “far Right thugs”, r...

Alaa Abd el-Fattah’s abhorrent views were well known long before he was welcomed into Britain Daily Telegraph 30/12/25 Telegraph View For the first time, visa restrictions have been imposed by Britain on countries refusing to take back criminals and illegal migrants. Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, has deployed powers – introduced under the Conservatives in 2022 but not used until now – against the Democratic Republic of Congo. Its diplomats and ministers will no longer receive special treatment and its citizens will be barred from fast-track entry to the UK. The DRC accounts for a tiny number among the cohort of illegal arrivals, with just 134 people awaiting a decision. Nonetheless, there will be a general welcome to this bipartisan approach since it purportedly demonstrates a determination to crack down on foreign nationals coming to our shores and abusing the country’s laws and hospitality. Two other African countries changed their position and agreed to accept deport...

Reeves has added £75.1bn to the burden on taxpayers and still borrowing is out of control Daily Telegraph 27/12/25 Simon Heffer We can’t go to the pub because we’re too poor – and it will have shut anyway Reeves has added £75.1bn to the burden on taxpayers and still borrowing is out of control Many of those pubs still open have banned Labour MPs over the party's anti-business policies Many of those pubs still open have banned Labour MPs over the party’s anti-business policiesCredit: Lorne Campbell Simon Heffer Simon Heffer 27 December 2025 9:44am GMT We all heard the squealing handbrake turn just before Christmas when Rachel Reeves decided to raise the threshold at which inheritance tax would be levied, to try to quell the justified outrage of farmers in particular who would suffer from it. Leaks also appeared saying she was considering revisiting non-dom status, precisely because so many rich people had left Britain, taking their considerable spending power with them. Labo...

Inflation is falling because the economy is on its knees 2025 has been the year of Rachel Reeves – although not in a favourable way Daily Telegraph 22/12/25 Since 2025 is not yet done, it may seem a trifle early to be writing its overall assessment. But next week, in that strange interregnum between Christmas and New Year, I intend to cast my eye forward to the coming year. So this is my last chance to comment on the one almost over. Living in the UK, you might reasonably surmise that this has been the year of Rachel Reeves – although not in a favourable way. Yet, thinking globally, the person who has dominated 2025, economically as much as in other spheres, is surely Donald Trump. He has been active all year in trying to bring about an end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. He may yet pull off something spectacular after this article has gone to print. But, although this would bring much-needed relief in many quarters, I doubt that it would have major economic effects – either glo...

2025 is the year that shows Starmer has the reverse Midas touch The only thing that could save the Prime Minister is that those likely to replace him are unlikely to do a better job Tom Harris Daily Telegraph 22/12/25 As Keir Starmer toasts the arrival of the New Year in a little over a week’s time, he would not be blamed for saying a bitter “good riddance” to 2025. Ever since Her (late) Majesty the Queen introduced into common usage the term “annus horribilis” as a description of 1992 in her Christmas message of that year, it has been customary to apply the designation to certain years in unfortunate politicians’ careers. But it is hard to summon from the memory banks a year that has been quite this bad for a prime minister, one that started off badly and which is set to end on an even more bleak note. A year that kicked off with a very public row between Starmer and the owner of Twitter/X, Elon Musk, over the rape gang scandal – with Musk accusing the Prime Minister of fail...

I hope all of you have a very merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year. Thanks to everybody for their contributions and friendship this year. It's a shame that Richard isn't with us to celebrate this one. lovely man. greatly missed. But I am pleased that his family have contributed to our forum in his absence.

The sheer number of policy reversals reveal an extraordinarily weak Prime Minister Daily Telegraph 23/12/25 It would be churlish for anyone to demand repeatedly that the Government reverse its spiteful policy of levying inheritance tax on farmers and small businesses and then to castigate the same Government for doing so. Not that Keir Starmer has done exactly that, but today’s decision to more than double the threshold from the original £1 million to £2.5 million will be a relief for many families who had fretted about the impossibility of handing farms or firms on to the next generation as going concerns. So we should be thankful that the prime minister has shown some flexibility on this topic. One cheer for Starmer. Or perhaps one and a half. It is Christmas after all. There is a wider political problem in this, of course, and it is one that is vexing the brains of many Labour MPs as they cast a reluctant glance at what political events will develop in 2026. For performing U-t...

There is always extra cash available for this Government’s favoured projects Daily Telegraph 20/12/25 Another £800m will be spent on re-joining the Erasmus scheme that allows students to study across Europe. Money has been found for the spiffy new livery for Great British Railways. Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, has even found some extra cash for vegan “fish free” supplements made from algae on the site of the former Grangemouth chemicals plant – which unfortunately couldn’t survive the crippling energy costs he imposed on it. With every week that passes, the Government embarks on yet more extravagant spending. There is just one catch. As yet another terrifying set of public borrowing figures made clear, Labour’s spending juggernaut is crushing the economy – and leaving it far weaker with every week that passes. The latest data on the public finances published on Friday made for sobering reading. According to the Office for National Statistics, the UK borrowed an extra £11...

Farage’s party hopes to force Commons vote on bill ordering government to hold council ballots Daily Telegraph 20/12/25 Reform UK has drafted legislation aimed at scuppering Labour’s plans to delay local elections. The Right-wing party is hoping to garner cross-party support for its Local Election Guarantee Bill, which seeks to force ministers to hold local and mayoral elections in 2026. The Government has been accused of trying to subvert democracy after announcing that ministers were considering delaying ballots for millions of voters as part of its plans to reorganise local government. Nigel Farage has said the local election postponements were designed to prevent Reform UK winning a string of elections next May and shield Labour and the Tories from embarrassing results. Zia Yusuf, the party’s head of policy, told The Telegraph: “We are inviting every member of parliament in the House of Commons who believes in democracy to support this bill, including the Tories. Ultimately...

It’s a ridiculous, unfair policy that will create a huge backlash, so of course Starmer will go for it Daily Telegraph 17/12/25 In the depths of the Second World War, economist William Beveridge drew up radical plans to tackle poverty. Among his recommendations, set out in the historic Beveridge Report, were a universal system of social insurance and the creation of a national health service. To the best of my knowledge, however, he did not add: “Oh, and one other thing. To banish Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness once and for all, the unemployed must be entitled to spend all day watching Homes Under the Hammer free of charge.” That, however, is the proposal apparently being considered by our current Government, as it weighs up potential reforms of the BBC licence fee. Obviously no Labour administration would abolish the licence fee altogether – that would be like Stalin abolishing Pravda. But ministers are at least thinking about changes to the funding system. And on...

The government has admitted it is “minded” to cancel more local elections next year. That’s after cancelling four May Mayoral elections already… Guido Fawkes 18/12/25 Local government minister Alison McGovern told the Commons: “If a council voices genuine concerns, we’ll take these issues seriously, and would be minded to grant a delay in those areas.” The government is asking councils in 63 areas whether or not they would like to cancel elections in May. That’s 4.6 million votes. They will have until midnight on January 15 to apply for a delay. Communities minister Miatta Fahnbulleh said earlier this month that “local elections will go ahead in 2026”. Not so… Farage said “only dictators cancel elections” while Tory local government spokesman Paul Holmes said: “What does this Labour Government have against democracy?”. Meanwhile, Starmer is planning for a new king’s speech to be after the locals next year amid leadership speculation. Running scared…

Almost 200,000 penalties were imposed on foreign nationals claiming Universal Credit over two years Daily Telegraph 16/12/25 lihttps://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/12/16/migrants-break-benefits-rules-200-times-each-day/ Migrants are being sanctioned for breaking benefits rules more than 200 times a day, according to new data. Anyone who is receiving Universal Credit (UC) while out of work is required to enter into a claimant “commitment” with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). This includes attending appointments with a work coach, updating their CV or searching for jobs. Claimants are “sanctioned” if they fail to demonstrate that they are honouring the terms of their “commitment”. Between January 2023 and April 2025, the DWP issued 198,771 “adverse sanctions” against migrants claiming UC, data obtained by think tank Centre for Migration Control (CMC) show. That is equivalent to just over 1,600 a week, or more than 200 a day. Over the same time period, 1,356,226 sanct...

Allister Heath Daily Telegraph 13/12/24 Politicians never create wealth, but they often destroy it. Rachel Reeves has only been Chancellor for 18 months, yet the costs that she has inflicted upon our beleaguered private sector are already unquantifiably large. Rarely has a chancellor squandered so much GDP in so little time, or failed to understand that, in economics as well as in war, careless talk costs livelihoods. GDP fell another 0.1 per cent in October, and has now shrunk for four months in a row. As the economist Julian Jessop points out, GDP has contracted in nine of the 16 months of the Labour Government for which we have data. The public sector is doing well: the private sector, which pays for everything and everyone, is shrinking. We may see a recession but, even if we don’t, it is quite possible that the economy will never catch up the squandered opportunities of the past 18 months. It is a calamity, and one made in Downing Street. Reeves’s horrendous tax increases ha...

Unless net zero rules are eased quickly and significantly, UK carmaking will be decimated Daily Telegraph 14/12/25 The latest UK growth numbers are disastrous for this hapless Labour Government and terrible news for the broader economy. GDP fell 0.1pc in October compared to the previous month. Construction lagged, down 0.6pc, while the UK’s services sector, three quarters of our economy, saw a 0.3pc drop. Over the three months to October, industrial production shrank 0.5pc, driven by an 18pc fall in vehicle manufacturing. The cyber-attack on Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) cast a long shadow, halting production at its UK plants for the whole of September. JLR’s output has since partially recovered, helping to lift economy-wide production 1.1pc over the month, preventing the headline October GDP figure from dropping more steeply. Yet despite the return of some JLR output, total UK carmaking remains well below levels seen in August. Britain’s economy has stagnated since the summer, amid ...

Sir Keir Starmer is sending two of his closest allies to the heart of the EU today in a desperate bid to "fix the problem" of the "far-right". GB News 10/12/25 David Lammy and Lord Hermer, the Attorney General, have been dispatched to Strasbourg for urgent talks on reforming the highly controversial European Convention on Human Rights. The PM is pushing to rescue the treaty and make it "evolve to reflect the challenges of the 21st century" - warning that if it does not, "populists will win". His poll-topping rivals Reform UK and his Tory opposition have both pledged to leave the Convention entirely, arguing it is being misused to fuel Britain's migrant crisis. In a joint article with his Danish counterpart Mette Frederiksen in The Guardian, Sir Keir pledged that migration "must be orderly, managed and sustainable". They said they would "act", not "exploit these issues and stoke grievances as some do". ...

According to the Green Party leader, we need more migrants – because ‘I don’t particularly want to wipe someone’s bum’. Pardon? Daily Telegraph 09/12/25 link Under the exciting leadership of Zack Polanski, the celebrated breast enlargement guru, the previously drab and dowdy Greens have started coming up with all manner of imaginative policies to transform Britain. It’s not easy to choose a favourite. But I can narrow it down to two. Because I love the fact that they simultaneously want to “abolish landlords” and “legalise all drugs”. In other words: you’ll no longer be allowed to rent out your buy-to-let. But not to worry, because you’ll be able to make up your losses by dealing crack. What a fascinating prospect. At present, many elderly people in this country supplement their state pensions through income from rental property. But under a Green government, presumably, we’ll instead see little old ladies on street corners chirping: “Excuse me, young man! No, no, I don’t need a...

Labour is gambling the nation’s economy on an as-yet-unidentified miracle Daily Telegraph 10/12/25 Link It has been just over 17 years since Lehman Brothers collapsed, the defining event of the global financial crisis. In the intervening years, it’s fair to say that no government has ever got to grips with the monumental impact of 2008 – which has led to a sense of stagnation in this country. Most of us feel poorer, compounded by a belief that nothing works as it should in “broken Britain” – all of which is supported by data. In fact, it was this narrative of decline that sparked the bust-up between Rachel Reeves and the Office for Budget Responsibility. Prior to her second Budget, the OBR downgraded the country’s productivity forecast, confirming that somehow things were even worse than we had thought. For almost two decades successive governments have limped from crisis to crisis, squandered opportunities to invest and presided over the immiseration of a nation with vague...

An organisation that once backed the Prime Minister appears to be looking for a replacement 08/12/25 Daily Telegraph link With each passing day, another chip is struck from the edifice of Keir Starmer’s leadership of the Labour Party. The think tank Labour Together, which was a prime mover behind Starmer’s takeover of the party in 2020, has been canvassing its supporters’ views on who might be best placed to lead Labour to victory at the next general election. This, obviously, is hardly the action of an organisation that is loyal to the incumbent Prime Minister. And when even the group behind your leadership campaign is asking who might do a better job, the writing isn’t just on the wall: it’s engraved in granite. Embarrassingly for Number 10, Morgan McSweeney, Starmer’s chief-of-staff, was formerly the director of Labour Together. There is no suggestion that McSweeney had anything to do with the survey. However news of it will be an unwelcome reminder to those around Starmer t...

The line between democracy and totalitarianism is blurring in the UK’s surveillance state Daily Telegraph - 08/12/25 link The gates at the Tube station open as you approach, and the facial recognition in the camera bank mounted on the far wall matches your features to your government records and then to your bank account. The man behind you is wearing a scarf – he taps his phone and his banking app is debited. The software of his banking app, tied to his Department for Work and Pensions records, informs the gate that he receives Universal Credit, and the fare is reduced accordingly. The third man has a harder time, and the gates don’t open. An icon on his phone flashes a red bar through a green leaf – he has exceeded his carbon allocation for the month and must purchase additional personal units. You take your seat and scroll through your social media feed. Small badges next to usernames show that each has a verified identity, accessible with a tap. Some are complaining about ove...