https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/11/22/pakistanis-holiday-visa-loophole-lodge-record-asylum-claims/ Nearly 10,000 Pakistanis entered the country with temporary visitor, work or student visas before then switching last year to claim asylum in an attempt to secure permanent residency in the UK, according to government data. Pakistan now accounts for one in 10 of all asylum claims, more than any of the 175 other nations from which migrants seek refugee status in the UK. It topped the table with over 11,000 asylum applications, ahead of Afghanistan, Iran and Eritrea in a five-fold rise since 2022 when its claims numbered just 2,154. […] “The rise of Pakistan in the asylum league tables exposes a truth politicians often avoid: Britain’s migration system isn’t just failing at the borders - it’s failing within them. Yes, small boats matter. But ‘legal entry, then asylum claim’ shows how the system is being gamed from inside. https://archive.ph/uP7Pd

Errors, omissions and illogicalities galore at the Covid inquiry

The investigation tells us much about what we already know but little about what we need to know — whether lockdowns work and, if so, are worth t...

The Covid inquiry is an extremely slow and expensive way of reaching some highly questionable conclusions. It is based on a remarkably limited range of material, much of it lacking in objectivity. Some of its arguments are logically incoherent. And it is riddled with solemn warnings against methodological errors and omissions which the author then proceeds to commit herself. This is the second “module” of the inquiry. At £200 million and with another eight modules to go, one is bound to question whether the public is getting value for money. https://archive.ph/h7tRm

For those days when your shoulders are having a hot flush.

Dear Diary, Today, I almost saw the sun!

I think today may be worse than yesterday. First use of my winter coat….

Progressives are dehumanising Charlie Kirk even in death

The gloating, gleeful response to the murder of the conservative activist has been shameful.

His death does not come out of the blue. It happened after years of violent and hyperbolic rhetoric from the mainstream media and Democratic elites attacking conservatives as evil, Nazi-adjacent threats to the status quo. Indeed, the day before Kirk’s assassination, Connecticut Democratic senator Chris Murphy announced, ‘We’re in a war right now to save this country… so you have to be willing to do whatever is necessary in order to save the country’. Nothing is beneath these people. After Kirk’s death, ‘progressive’ pundits and assorted online leftists have claimed that Kirk brought this on himself. That he deserves it for espousing ‘controversial’ views. MSNBC political analyst Matthew Dowd said that ‘[Kirk has] been one of the most divisive younger figures, who is constantly sort of pushing this hate speech aimed at certain groups. And I always go back to, hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which lead to hateful actions.’ By hateful thoughts and words, of course, Dowd means any views that challenge his liberal-left worldview.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/09/trade-unions-vow-to-oppose-supreme-court-trans-ruling/ Trade unions have vowed to oppose the Supreme Court ruling on transgender issues and have called official guidance on single-sex spaces “flawed”. Delegates at the Trades Union Congress (TUC) voted unanimously in favour of a motion which said the April ruling went against the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). One representative of the Unison union accused Bridget Phillipson, the equalities minister, of overseeing a “segregation” of trans people in society. https://archive.ph/CHxNI

BBC News

Koala chlamydia: Australia approves vaccine to curb killer epidemic

Thousands of koalas have died from the disease, with some estimates suggesting only 50,000 remain in the wild.

A vaccine which could save Australia's endangered koala population from a rampant chlamydia epidemic has been approved for rollout for the first time. University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC) scientists have spent more than a decade developing a jab to curb the spread of the disease, which has devastated wild koala populations across most of eastern Australia.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/09/10/ukraine-russia-war-latest-news-drones-poland-nato/ Nato jets shot down Russian drones that “repeatedly violated” Poland’s airspace in an overnight bombardment of Ukraine. Polish, Dutch and Italian fighter aircraft were scrambled to intercept at least 19 drones as citizens were told to stay at home. It marks the most serious clash between Russia and the alliance since the start of war in Ukraine, dragging the conflict into uncharted territory. Politicians and analysts believe it was a deliberate attempt by the Kremlin to test Nato’s response.

Revealed: Global warming exaggerated, say soaring number of Britons

Research for The Times has uncovered a huge rise in scepticism over climate change as voters turn against net zero policies

The number of Britons who think the dangers of global warming have been exaggerated has jumped by more than 50 per cent in the past four years, new research for The Times reveals today. One in four voters now believe that concerns over climate change are not as real as scientists have said, amid growing public concern at the cost of the government’s net zero policies. Less than a third of the public (30 per cent) are in favour of banning new petrol and diesel cars — down from 51 per cent in 2021. https://archive.ph/TUrLj

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/09/allison-pearson-graham-linehan-arrest/ The pattern is always the same. When the police want to behave like social-justice activists they demand “operational independence”. When they get found out suddenly they want “guidance”. None of this is by accident. The stretching or misinterpreting of legislation that was intended for genuinely threatening scenarios to intimidate or criminalise people for expressing legitimate opinions is deliberate policy. It is presided over by one of the worst, most un-British bodies in Britain: the College of Policing. This quango states its purpose is “to support everyone in policing to reduce crime and keep people safe, including by sharing knowledge and good practice”. Its true aim is more worrying, I think, and lacks democratic accountability. According to one senior officer, the College sees its role as promoting and supporting equality and diversity, and “supporting difference”. Entirely captured by transgender activists, the College brainwashes police officers to spout slogans like Maoist cultural revolutionaries – “Hateful and offensive! Hateful and offensive!” Anyone who hopes to climb the career ladder must be able to demonstrate their fidelity to progressive, Left-wing ideas, no matter how bonkers they may be. https://archive.ph/O4oV9

I was going to say that this was a bit much, but it’s fabric not spray paint, so actually quite clever!

Express.co.uk

St George

The St George

I’ve been getting mixed signals on the rodent front for the last couple of weeks: bait being taken sometimes, but the ducks’ bowl not being scraped clean and no actual sightings. I set a trap last night to see what was going on, and: sorry, little mousie. That wasn’t meant for you :(

The Spectator

The truth about the trans school shooter

True, one of the earliest school shooters, Brenda Spencer, who shot up a playground in San Diego in 1979, was a girl – famously providing the peg...

For journalists to take a trans-mollycoddling stand in the pronoun wars isn’t merely to default to niceness. Misidentifying the biological sex of figures in news stories is an implicit declaration of support for an incoherent, unhinged ideology. This grammatical loyalty to progressive dogma apparently trumps journalistic integrity – the obligation to report the truth – and even decency. Chronicling the Annunciation Catholic Church and School shooting, the New York Times and the BBC are pandering to the tender feelings of someone who’s 1) a would-be mass murderer (the successful kind, by a rather arbitrary definition, kills four or more), 2) insane and 3) dead. We alive people resent once-reputable news outlets choosing the occasion of two murdered and 15 sometimes seriously injured schoolchildren and three injured adults in their eighties to propagandise and yet again defy biological reality. Media kowtowing to trans orthodoxy alienates their mainstream audiences. Incorrect pronouns drive news consumers nuts. Alluding to a burly guy with five o’clock shadow in a pink wig as ‘she’ makes journalists seem like fools, and readers and viewers feel mocked. Even the wussy middle course of calling trans people ‘they’ leads to grammatical confusion. https://archive.ph/5YIqM

Go, 4chan, go!

BBC News

4chan will refuse to pay daily UK fines, its lawyer tells BBC

The online message board's lawyers say UK safety laws shouldn't apply to a business based in the US.

A lawyer representing the online message board 4chan says it won't pay a proposed fine by the UK's media regulator as it enforces the Online Safety Act. According to Preston Byrne, managing partner of law firm Byrne & Storm, Ofcom has provisionally decided to impose a £20,000 fine "with daily penalties thereafter" for as long as the site fails to comply with its request. "Ofcom's notices create no legal obligations in the United States," he told the BBC, adding he believed the regulator's investigation was part of an "illegal campaign of harassment" against US tech firms. Ofcom has declined to comment while its investigation continues. "4chan has broken no laws in the United States - my client will not pay any penalty," Mr Byrne said.

Police remove sign calling for motorists to 'beep if you think Starmer's a w****r' - over concerns honking from cars could annoy residents | Daily Mail Online

Locals have said the sign created the

Police have removed a banner calling for drivers to 'beep if you think Starmer's a wanker' over fears the noise could disturb residents. Locals have said the sign created the 'loudest dual carriageway in Britain' before it was brought to the attention of police.

The Spectator

The small boats are a national security emergency

New immigration data published today has only reinforced what many have known for some time – the current government strategy of ‘smashing the ...

But what is especially alarming is the demographic breakdown of recent small-boat migrants who have arrived on Britain’s shores. It is safe to say that that we are not referring to migratory trends dominated by women and girls who are at serious threat of sex-based violence in warzones where rape is used as a weapon of war. From January to June 2025, 70 per cent of the 19,982 small-boat migrants who were recorded as arriving in the UK were males who were 18 to 39 years of age. During this time, the top five nationalities among small-boat migrants are the following: Eritrean, Afghan, Sudanese, Somali, and Iranian. They originate from parts of the world where women’s rights are not in especially high supply. On top of that, there are emerging trends which underscore the reality of the small-boats crisis being a national-security emergency. In the first half of this year, 977 Yemeni nationals arrived in the UK through small-boat Channel crossings – adding to the 1,300 last year. From January to June this year, 266 small-boat migrants who reached the UK’s shores were recorded as originating from the ‘Occupied Palestinian Territories’ – a marked increase from last year’s total figure of 72. There are growing signs that the impact of the Yemeni civil war and the Israel-Palestine conflict is spilling over into the UK’s small-boats emergency. Irrespective of one’s views on UK Middle Eastern policy, the possibility of the UK importing Yemenis sympathetic to the Houthis and Palestinians supportive of Hamas – two Islamist political-military organisations backed by the Islamic Republic of Iran – carries significant public-safety risks, especially to Britain’s Jewish communities. https://archive.ph/dY5ke

I’m slightly surprised that I have yet to see this memed. 1066: William the Conqueror crossed the channel with some 8,000 men. 1588: The Spanish fleet consisted of about 130 ships with about 8,000 seamen and possibly as many as 19,000 soldiers. 2025: 28,000 and counting….

Police gag order against union activist overturned in free speech case

A Free Speech Union (FSU) member was arrested in an early-morning raid after criticising his former employer in a private Facebook group, then placed

A Free Speech Union (FSU) member was arrested in an early-morning raid after criticising his former employer in a private Facebook group, then placed under “Orwellian” bail conditions barring him from even revealing the arrest. Following legal intervention supported by the FSU, the extraordinary “gagging clause” has now been overturned at a special court hearing. […] In 2023, an employment tribunal ruled he had been unfairly dismissed on grounds of capability. Since then, he has continued to advise firefighters in a private Facebook group, occasionally posting critical remarks about the service’s management. Speaking to the Telegraph, he said his comments – which have been reviewed by the paper as well as by the FSU’s casework and legal teams – were “anodyne” and “certainly not criminal”. Nevertheless, these remarks drew police attention. Earlier this summer, Staffordshire Police carried out a 7am raid on Moss’s home in Newcastle-under-Lyme, seizing his phones, iPad and computer, before arresting him on suspicion of an offence under section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988. Moss said the officers were “heavy-handed” and left him feeling “like a criminal.”