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Queen Mary ascended the throne of England in 1553. In subsequent years, she had at least two hundred people put to death (often by fire) for their religious convictions. To history she became known as "Bloody Mary," although, in truth, she killed far fewer people per year than her brutal father. The godliness of many of her victims made them stand out. Mary's father, King Henry VIII had separated the Church of England from the Roman Catholic church, but he had not reformed the church's practices or doctrines. On Henry's death, his young son Edward became King. Many of Edward's...

British Prime Minister David Cameron lost a preliminary vote on Syria, an early sign of the pushback Western governments may face as they prepare to launch an attack. Thursday evening's vote was nonbinding, but in practice the rejection of military strikes means Mr. Cameron's hands are tied. In a terse statement to Parliament, Mr. Cameron said it was clear to him that the British people did not want to see military action.

One of the Queen's swans has been found killed and barbecued on the riverbank near to Windsor Castle. The cooked swan's carcass was dumped near Baths Water, and was discovered by Wendy Hermon, 46, a volunteer for charity Swan Lifeline, which cares for sick and injured birds. She described the scene as 'sickening', and admitted she would have been distraught if her young son was with her when she made the grisly discovery after being called out by a council warden last Sunday.

Great Britain on Monday sent warships to the Mediterranean and weighed legal action against Spain in a territorial dispute over the Gibraltar peninsula, as Madrid threatened to join with Argentina in a U.N. effort to strip Britain of the last remnants of its empire. In London, Ministry of Defense officials told the BBC that the Royal Navy deployments are part of a long-planned military exercise and not connected to the three-centuries old dispute over the Gibraltar enclave. The feud between the European allies has erupted anew in recent weeks amid Spanish protests over an effort to create an artificial reef...

Readers of First Things probably know this already, but here’s a follow up on a story from earlier this year. In February, archaeologists confirmed that they had discovered the remains of King Richard III beneath a parking lot in Leicester. Richard died in battle at Bosworth Field in August 1485; the Tudor victors gave him a rather unceremonious burial in what was then a local abbey. Richard will now be re-interred in Leicester’s Anglican cathedral, most likely next May. Back in February, some Catholics objected that Richard, who was Catholic, should by rights be buried in a Catholic ceremony in...

Fees have not risen for more than a decade and there is a shortfall of £19 million each year for police forces to process certificates. Chief Constable Andy Marsh, the association’s spokesman on firearms licensing, also called on the Treasury to plug the financial hole. Sporting gun users immediately said they feared the move was a backdoor attempt to cut the number of gun owners in the country. A five-year firearms or shotgun certificate currently costs £50, yet police forces estimate they cost around £200 each to process the paperwork and ensure the guns are being stored safely.

Fifty years ago, it was the Summer of Profumo in London, commencing with a ministerial resignation that brought down a Conservative Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, and eventually his successor, Lord Home, too. Half-a-century on, it remains Britain's most famous sex scandal, and sufficiently potent that later this year Andrew Lloyd Webber, Don Black and Christopher Hampton will unveil their West End musical on the subject. Here's what I had to say, with a personal reminiscence of the lady involved, in my obituary of John Profumo. This essay appears in my book Mark Steyn's Passing Parade:

A new secret justice row broke out last night after The Mail on Sunday discovered that hundreds of thousands of convicted criminals are having their identities protected by police. More than half of forces in England and Wales refuse to publish mugshots of offenders unless they have been jailed—in defiance of national guidelines. Some insist on sentences of more than three years before they release a custody photo to the press, citing concerns about data protection and the criminals’ human rights. …

53% of Muslim men are depending upon the kuffar. It's the jiyza. It's the duty of non-Muslim to pay for the upkeep of the non-Muslim. Muslim Economic Activity in the UK Islam vs. Europe  Politicians constantly argue that immigration brings economic benefits. Even if that were true in general, it clear that Muslim immigration does not. Here are links to a few relevant sources of information on the subject: MigrationWatch reports that: "For example, compared with the UK average of 22% of the working age population being economically inactive, Somali, Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Iranian immigrants are likely to be 81%,...

LONDON — British police have arrested a 75-year-old man on suspicion of causing an explosion after a homemade bomb went off near a mosque. West Midlands Police said the man was arrested by counterterrorism officers Thursday at his home in Walsall, near the central England city of Birmingham.

Prominent anti-jihadi bloggers Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs and Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch have been banned from entering Great Britain for a democracy march. The BBC reported: Two prominent US bloggers have been banned from entering the UK, the Home Office has said. Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer co-founded anti-Muslim group Stop Islamization of America. They were due to speak at an English Defence League march in Woolwich, where Drummer Lee Rigby was killed. A government spokesman said individuals whose presence “is not conducive to the public good” could be excluded by the home secretary. He added: “We condemn...

Listen to this video of how Muzzie immigrants come to Britain, get treated to the best of the best bennies, while native Brits get the dirty end of the stick. LISTEN, it's hilarious!!

Plucking disgusting? Coat made from human chest hair  Fur sale ... £2,499 coat made from chest hair  A JACKET made entirely from human CHEST HAIR has gone on sale. The furry fashion statement, which costs £2,499, uses a million hairs plucked from mens' pecs.     Cravendale milk producers Arla foods are hoping it will turn people on to their new drink Wing Co, which they call "the manly chocolate milk for men with added man". Man fuel ... Arla Food's solution to shaven-chests But we hope it doesn't have a dampening effect on appetites. It does go perfectly...

1st PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 1789-97 FAMILY ESSAY "Washington came of very good blood - aw, quite good - I b'lieve." Attributed by his classmates to Amory Blaine in F. Scott Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise. The Washingtons are of unusual antiquity in European terms, let alone American ones. A direct male ancestry has been traced back to William de Wessington or Wessyngton (i.e., Washington, a town in Tyne and Wear, formerly County Durham, in northern England), who was living in the late 12th century. The remoter ancestry is not absolutely certain but a detailed argument has...

Tt is often regarded as the British Army’s greatest military victory. Led into battle by the Duke of Wellington, UK troops routed Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo, a triumph ushering in almost a century of peace and stability in Europe. But the Government is refusing to mark the battle’s 200th anniversary in 2015 amid suspicions it does not want to offend France. SNIP Brussels is spending at least £20million on commemorative events, including restoring the battlefield. SNIP James Morrow, secretary of Waterloo 200, ...said he was ‘disappointed’. SNIP ‘The Belgian government has spent millions on events to commemorate the...

... The machine produces 10 to 15 see-saw motions a minute to induce an exact imitation of natural breathing. It works automatically once the patient is balanced on the light metal frame.

Six Islamic extremists who planned to spark 'a tit-for-tat spiral of violence and terror' with an attack on an EDL rally have today been jailed for up to 19-and-a-half years. The Al Qaeda-inspired cell were plotting to attack an Armed Forces Day rally in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, with weapons including nail bombs, machetes and sawn-off shotguns Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC told the men: 'How was it that you became involved in a crime of this gravity? 'At least part of the answer to that question must come in the tide of apparently freely available extremist material in which most of...

Carole Longhorn, 65, took a number of unusual safety stops after discovered the explosive SNIP She hit the metal object with a spade while she was gardening at her home and when she looked closer realised it was in the shape of a shell. SNIP Once she had dug it up she took it inside their house and left it on the coffee table, before Mr Longhorn heard a rattle and turned around to see his wife washing mud off the bomb in the sink. Police were called and experts confirmed they believed that the bomb was still live. They...

Children from Newtongrange Primary visited the Central Mosque in Potterrow, but from an original group of 90 pupils, 28 were withdrawn. The trip had been organised to help educate the primary one, two and five pupils about other religions and cultures. But one parent today said they didn’t want their child “mixed up in the hate being preached in mosques”. The incident comes amid heightened tensions in the wake of the killing of soldier Lee Rigby in London, and David Cameron’s pledge to “drain the swamp” of extremism. Religious leaders and Midlothian councillors condemned parents pulling their children out the...

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has discussed its revamped security regulations with the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) in light of the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby, 25, in Woolwich, south-east London, which it said had even provoked attacks in the United States. The security improvements encouraged by CAIR, America's largest Muslim advocacy group, encourage the building of transparent fences around mosques, wire screens on windows, designated security officials, three-inch-thick doors, panic alarms and safe rooms. Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for CAIR, said: "From the outside it definitely seems UK mosques are more at risk than anywhere, including the...