Free Republic

Remember all those polls during the Presidential Campaign, how Europe desperately wanted Barack Obama to win. The European leadership all fawned over Obama when he made his summer tour tour around the world. One of the President's campaign promises was that he was going to "repair" our relationship with Europe (as if they needed to be repaired). Ever since he was inaugurated, President Obama has done his best to diss our allies in Europe especially Great Britain. Almost one year into the Obama Presidency, our "relationship-repairer-in-chief" has done more to increase the divide between Britain and the US than to...

No matter how you slice it, this is just frightening. I stumbled upon this diagram (from Great Britain’s National Health Service) on the BBC news site. Check the site out, please. Am I missing something? I read and re-read the article and could find no reference to the numbers – only those on the picture. And they certainly don’t jive with the numbered list below Mr. Skinned. Point #1 clearly aligns with the #1 symptoms listed below the figure: whole body | high temperature, tiredness and lowered immunity. Point #2, ditto. #3 location is the stomach: this is where you...

The amount spent on employing managers has risen by a quarter, or £78 million, in the past two years, the study shows. NHS Trusts blamed Whitehall targets for the increase. It comes a day after NICE, the drugs rationing watchdog, refused funding for life-prolonging bowel cancer drug Avastin, saying it was not cost effective. Pulse, a magazine for GPs, found that projected spending on management salaries has increased by 25 per cent between 2007/08 and 2009/10 in primary care trusts, which look after community services. It was up from £312million to £390million. But the true figure is likely to be...

The UK Independence Party is set to head in a fresh direction, fighting radical Islam, with the election today of a replacement for Nigel Farage as its national leader. The two favourites to take over from Mr Farage are committed to adding the battle against Islamic fundamentalism to the party’s main goal of withdrawing Britain from the European Union. Mr Farage resisted strong grassroots pressure during his three-year leadership to broaden UKIP’s focus to include actively campaigning against Islamism and immigration. But both Lord Pearson of Rannoch and the London MEP Gerard Batten — the two front-runners in a field...

As the new hunting season begins today, animal rights activists are threatening to disrupt meets as "observers", as well as joining hunts undercover. The saboteurs will film constantly using new telescopic lenses so hunts can be monitored from a distance. They will also use hidden cameras in clothing and time-delay devices dotted around the countryside. (edit) Hunting was banned in 2005 but since then the number of people taking part in the sport has continued to increase, with 50,000 mounted followers expected this year compared to 40,000 in 2004. This year there are expected to be a further 50,000...

Government seeks secrecy on cleft palate abortions The Government has launched a High Court bid to maintain secrecy over the abortion of babies with cleft palate and club feet. Published: 7:00AM GMT 13 Nov 2009 In an extraordinary move, the Department of Health is taking the Government's own Information Tribunal to court to overturn a landmark Freedom of Information Act ruling. The case, which is set to cost the taxpayer thousands, aims to prevent the publication of controversial statistics including late terminations for disabled babies, which are legal under Ground E of the Abortion Act, right up to birth. Last...

Ex-soldier faces jail for handing in gun Thursday, November 12, 2009, 10:30 A former soldier who handed a discarded shotgun in to police faces at least five years imprisonment for "doing his duty".Paul Clarke, 27, was found guilty of possessing a firearm at Guildford Crown Court on Tuesday – after finding the gun and handing it personally to police officers on March 20 this year. The jury took 20 minutes to make its conviction, and Mr Clarke now faces a minimum of five year's imprisonment for handing in the weapon. In a statement read out in court, Mr Clarke said:...

A heavily pregnant woman and her fiance have gone on the run after social workers threatened to take away their baby at birth. Kerry Robertson, 17, and Mark McDougall, 25, had been told that she was not bright enough to raise their child and that they would have to give him up. It was another blow for the couple, whose wedding this year was halted just 48 hours before the ceremony in a row over whether Miss Robertson was intelligent enough to marry.   Miss Robertson, who is 29 weeks pregnant, has since been told the couple will be...

Regular readers of these pages know my little "pet name" for the leadership of the global warming hoaxers is "The Holy Church of Global Warming Moonbats" There is a Judge in the UK who believes just as I do, except he is serious. In a landmark ruling, Mr Justice Michael Burton said that "a belief in man-made climate change ... is capable, if genuinely held, of being a philosophical belief for the purpose of the 2003 Religion and Belief Regulations".

British film icon Sir Michael Caine has abandoned his support of the Labour party and announced he will vote Conservative at the next general election. The actor, 76, a former Labour supporter, condemned the “terrible state” that has been allowed to develop in Britain and said he planned to change his allegiance at the next election. For his latest film, Harry Brown, about violence on Britain’s streets, Sir Michael spent time with a gang from a tough inner London estate, who were hired as extras.

A man who stabbed a burglar to death after catching him in the act was charged with murder yesterday. Omari Roberts, 23, was remanded in custody. Roberts had found two teenage burglars in his mother's house when he arrived to visit her. After chasing one of the youths, aged 14, from the property, he returned to find 17-year-old Tyler Juett still there. There was a struggle and Juett was fatally stabbed in the chest, Nottingham Magistrates Court was told. The Crown Prosecution Service said the decision to charge Roberts months after the incident in March had been taken after 'careful...

Scotland Yard has abandoned plans for armed foot patrols and marksmen on motorbikes in gun crime hotspots in the face of mounting political criticism. Sir Paul Stephenson, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, was forced to withdraw the proposal before a meeting of his police authority on Thursday, where he would have faced fierce criticism. The plan to deploy armed officers on the beat as a response to rising gun crime in the capital was announced last week when Sir Paul was out of the country. A team from CO19, the unit that shot dead Jean Charles de Menezes in 2005,...

So now the cat is well and truly out of the bag. For years, as the number of immigrants to Britain shot up apparently uncontrollably, the question was how exactly this had happened. Was it through a fit of absent-mindedness or gross incompetence? Or was it not inadvertent at all, but deliberate? The latter explanation seemed just too outrageous. After all, a deliberate policy of mass immigration would have amounted to nothing less than an attempt to change the very make-up of this country without telling the electorate. There could not have been a more grave abuse of the entire...

(edit)Accounts filed at the Charity Commission show that the Government paid a total of £113,411 last year to a foundation run by senior members and activists of Hizb ut-Tahrir — a notorious Islamic extremist group that ministers promised to ban. (edit) Chris Grayling, the shadow home secretary, last night described the disclosure as “astonishing and outrageous” and accused the Government of “sleeping on the job”. Hizb regards integration as “dangerous” and says that British Muslims should “fight assimilation” into British society. It wants to create a global Islamic superstate, or “caliphate”, initially in Muslim-majority countries and then across the rest...

Huge increases in immigration over the past decade were a deliberate attempt to engineer a more multicultural Britain, a former Government adviser said yesterday. Andrew Neather, a speechwriter who worked in Downing Street for Tony Blair and in the Home Office for Jack Straw and David Blunkett, said Labour's relaxation of controls was a plan to 'open up the UK to mass migration'. As well as bringing in hundreds of thousands to plug labour market gaps, there was also a 'driving political purpose' behind immigration policy, he claimed.

A white pupil was battered with a hammer at a school where politically correct teachers were afraid to deal with racial tensions, the High Court heard yesterday...

The image of a drunk student urinating on a war memorial has provoked a furious backlash from relatives who had laid wreaths of poppies in tribute to their loved ones. John Ievers, the grandson of a World War I soldier who died in 1917, branded student Philip Laing, 19, a 'drunken idiot' for desecrating the memorial in Baker's Pool, Sheffield. The 49-year-old software sales consultant said: 'I am annoyed - he's a drunken idiot. 'He should be made to clean the streets of Sheffield or do some kind of community service.'

SNIPPET: "Dalia Mogahed, a member of President Obama's Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, joined a representative of Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) for a television interview in Great Britain on Sunday. The Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report (GMBDR) noted that Mogahed was interviewed along with Dr. Nasreen Nawaz, women's representative for HT, on the British Muslim show "Muslimah Dilemma," which airs on the Islam Channel. GMBDR described the program as "a show presented by members of Hizb ut-Tahrir" featuring Nawaz "in her capacity as spokesperson" for the group. In some ways, Mogahed's performance during the 45-minute program (which has been...

Motorists should be forced to pay to drive on the busiest roads to slash greenhouse gas emissions, the Government's climate change watchdog says today. The Climate Change Committee, led by former CBI chief Lord Turner, wants ministers to introduce compulsory road pricing to prevent global warming. Under the controversial scheme, cars would be fitted with electronic tags and tracked either by satellite or roadside beacon. Charges would rise at times of peak congestion to around £1.50 a mile. In a report to MPs, the advisers called for a carbon revolution - with thousands of wind turbines, nuclear power stations...

Until now, however, one plan has remained unknown: an 18th-century plot to invade with an American army during that country’s War of Independence. Drawn up by a French general, the scheme was to bring over an American force of 10,000 that would find a Britain so distracted by the war on the other side of the Atlantic, that victory would seem certain. Just to make sure, however, the general suggested that the force include a corps of Native Americans, or “sauvages”, as he termed them, who would strike such fear in British troops that any resistance would collapse immediately. The...

  Ex-cop’s shocker for yobs   Keep out ... electric wire running along inside of Ralph's fenceSOUTH WEST NEWS By JOHN COLES Published: Today     A RETIRED cop is defending his home against yobs - with an ELECTRIC fence. Now a beat bobby has warned Ralph Harvey, 63, he may be sued if louts are injured by the live wire. The former RAF police sergeant says his bungalow is "under siege" from thugs throwing bricks, paving slabs, breeze blocks - and even acid.   Victim ... Ralph was burgled SOUTH WEST NEWS  The final straw came after all...

A BOY aged 12 turned up at school as a GIRL - after changing sex during the summer holidays. Teachers called an emergency assembly to order fellow pupils to treat him as female. The lad, whose parents have changed his name to a girl's by deed poll, arrived in a dress with long hair in ribboned pigtails. He is preparing for sex-swap surgery. Angry parents told yesterday how their kids were left tearful and confused after school staff announced the boy pupil was now a girl. They said the head teacher should have informed them in advance of the "sex...

A millionaire businessman is facing jail for attacking a career criminal who had held his family hostage at knifepoint. Munir Hussain, 52, was told he would be killed when three raiders invaded his home. He and his wife, their teenage daughter and two sons were ordered to lie on the floor of the living room with their hands behind their backs. But the Hussains' teenage son managed to escape through a window and when the men realised that, two of them fled. Hussain then threw a coffee table at the third man, 56-year-old Walid Salem, hitting him in the face....

New fathers are being given the right to take six months' paternity leave, despite concerns over its impact on firms in the recession. Gordon Brown will tell union bosses that the plan will be implemented after Business Secretary Lord Mandelson put it on ice because of the economic crisis. Around 400,000 men a year will qualify for the right to dramatically extended leave from April 2011.  At the moment, they can only take two weeks off, an offer taken up by 60 per cent of eligible men. By contrast, new mothers can take a year off. As well as...

The man responsible for the Europe-wide ban on traditional light bulbs can be revealed as a former Soviet Communist party member from Latvia. Andris Piebalgs, 51, the European Commissioner for Energy, leads the team which drafted the controversial regulations that will see all incandescent bulbs phased out by 2012. Far from being a faceless bureaucrat, Mr Piebalgs has waged a public war against opponents of the ban, mocking their stance and accusing them of being “resistant to change”. Five UK MEPs – including representatives of Sinn Fein, Plaid Cymru, Labour and the Liberal Democrats – endorsed the policy in a...

Wasn't Barack Obama supposed to be the guy who was loved all across the world. During the campaign didn't they do public opinion polls that showed how the Obamessiah was the choice over McCain in all of our allied countries as well as our enemies? Those days are gone. Remember how he he upset the entire country of Great Britain by dissing their Prime Minister; no state dinner, no press conference and to top it all off President Obama gave the Prime Minister a crappy take-home gift, old DVDs that were in a format that couldn't be played in a...

I remember when the UK first announced that a handful of Sharia Courts had opened there. People across the Internet were saying that is was no big deal, that is was just like Beth Din, Jewish Courts. My argument was that Jews are not looking to impose religious laws on the UK and that Pandora's Box had been opened. That the sharia loving Muslims of the UK would keep on pushing until they get full Sharia Law implemented in these courts. The push just got stronger.

Many people around the world, not just the relatives of the victims of the 270 people killed when Abdel Baset al-Megrahi blew up Pan Am Flight 103 over a Scottish town, are still furious about his release from a Scottish prison and the warm greetings extended to him when he arrived in Libya. The TV cameras showed the gala reception, Qaddafi hugging Megrahi, and Megrahi kissing the Libyan despot. Libya's leader then praised his "friend" British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the British government on Thursday for what he called their "courage" in allowing Megrahi's release. "To my friends in...

Gordon Brown was not very popular before this Lockerbie disaster, but after today his popularity will be lower than George Bush at a Code Pink convention. After the mass murderer al-Megrahi was released to die in Libya, a firestorm erupted on both sides of the Atlantic. Gordon Brown swore that there was no pressure from his government placed on Scotland to release the terrorist to make despite the evidence that the homecoming was part of a quid pro quo in an Oil Deal. Today Brown was caught in a "Chris Dodd" moment as released documents show that Scotland was against...

Gordon Brown is facing a Labour revolt over plans to cut the benefits of the poorest families by up to £15 a week, The Times can reveal. Proposals to be implemented next April, a month before a general election, could mean some people losing a fifth of their income. The move, which has provoked anger among Labour backbenchers, was compared last night with the fiasco over the abolition of the 10p rate of income tax. At the moment 300,000 people on low incomes are allowed to keep up to £780 a year of their housing allowance if they find accommodation...

After months of excruciating pain, Mark Wattson was relieved to finally have his appendix taken out. NHS doctors told him the operation to remove the ruptured organ was a 'success' and he was discharged from Great Western Hospital in Swindon, Wilts. But just weeks later the 35-year-old collapsed in agony and had to be re-admitted by ambulance. To his horror surgeons from the same team told him that his appendix was still inside him and had burst. In an emergency operation it was finally removed, leaving Mr Wattson fearing another organ may have been taken out during the first procedure....

The 270 victims who died in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 more than two decades ago included 189 Americans, among them dozens of college students and military personnel heading home for the holidays. Former Libyan intelligence agent Abdel Baset al-Megrahi was convicted of the terrorist act in 2001 and sentenced to 27 years in a Scottish prison. That's where this monster should have ended his days.

A gunshot ripped through the darkness and a young British soldier fell dying on FOB Jackson. I was just nearby talking on the satellite phone and saw the commotion. The soldier was taken to the medical tent and a helicopter lifted him to the excellent trauma center at Camp Bastion. That he made it to Camp Bastion alive dramatically improved his chances. But his life teetered and was in danger of slipping away. Making matters worse, the British medical system back in the United Kingdom did not possess the specialized gear needed to save his life. Americans had the right...

I had the pleasure of spending an evening in the company of the Adam Smith Institute’s Eamonn Butler at their annual boat party last month. Conversation inevitably turned to the state of the right in both the UK, where they have a chance at power the next election (if you can call Cameron of the right), and in the U.S. As with the set of interviews I have been doing with leaders of the UK right, I wondered what Butler would do if he were advising the American right on how to bring themselves back from oblivion: AD: As a...

A paedophile with a 30-year history of abusing children is being prescribed Viagra on the NHS - and there is nothing the authorities can do to stop him. Roger Martin, 71, merely has to visit his GP to obtain the libido-enhancing drug, even though experts warn it will enable him to continue preying on children despite his age. The probation officers who oversee Martin are powerless to interfere with the administration of prescription drugs. He does not have to tell his GP about his criminal past and even if he does, doctors cannot take convictions into account. Martin suffers from...

PORTADOWN, NORTHERN IRELAND—For the past month I have watched British media report and comment on the American healthcare uproar. American cable networks are also available here. The back-and-forth reporting and commentary resembles a replay of the War of 1812, this time with verbal salvos. Conservative American politicians and commentators fire at the British National Health Service (NHS) system and the British fire back, sometimes on the same program, repeating the Democrats’ mantra of how 47 million Americans are “uninsured” and how medical treatment in the United States depends on how much patients, or their insurance companies, will pay. Here, they...

Assuming that Obama was born in the United States, he was not only born a dual national of the United States and Great Britain, but at present he continues to be such. Some maintain that American law on citizenship cannot be subjected to any foreign law. But such an argument does not resolve the question of Obama’s dual nationality, for each nation has the sovereign right to make its own citizenship laws and one nation cannot deny another nation that right. This point can be better understood when we consider that McCain was born in Panama to U.S. citizen parents...

Every so often for the last half-century or so, we have seen some American arriving, breathless and sweating, with the latest post from the old country. And his news is always the same. It is that Britain is finished. All washed up. No more to be seen on the world stage -- except, perhaps, as "the sick man of Europe." This Anglo-Jeremiah is sure to quote Dean Acheson's stunning aperçu of 1962 that "Great Britain has lost an empire and has not yet found a role" -- which, if it means anything, simply means that the world-historical drama is short...

Has Obama ever held a UK, Kenyan or Indonesian passport? Specifically, the issue of whether Obama held a UK passport is absolutely relevant to determine whether he is currently a British citizen. (I will be publishing comprehensive research on this issue soon.) What passport did Obama travel to Indonesia with at the age of 6 years old? Even if you believe Obama is eligible to be President, the question of what passports he held and what nations he was a citizen of should be of paramount importance to all US citizens. But more important than knowing the answer to this...

More than 30 people were arrested today after disorder broke out during a demonstration billed as a protest against Islamic fundamentalism.   A total of 31 people were detained in Birmingham city centre during the event, which is believed to have been organised on social networking sites.  A West Midlands Police spokesman said the arrests were made at various locations during the protest and a counter-demonstration organised by the Unite Against Fascism group.   A protester lies injured following the demonstration in central Birmingham today     A man with a Union Jack flag is attacked after the protest...

In the last few years, I have had the opportunity to compare the human and veterinary health services of Great Britain, and on the whole it is better to be a dog. As a British dog, you get to choose (through an intermediary, I admit) your veterinarian. If you don’t like him, you can pick up your leash and go elsewhere, that very day if necessary. Any vet will see you straight away, there is no delay in such investigations as you may need, and treatment is immediate. There are no waiting lists for dogs, no operations postponed because something...

An Asian man who called police officers "white redneck hooligans" has been found guilty of making racist remarks.     Butt turned up at the scene on Parr Lane, Unsworth, Greater Manchester last year, shortly after his brother was taken away by police Hassan Butt, 29, also accused officers of acting "like the Gestapo" and asked them: "Why are you treating me like a Paki?"Butt, who once admitted having claimed he was a terrorist to make money from the media, was convicted of committing a racially aggravated public order offence by District Judge Diana Baker at Manchester Magistrates Court....

British leaders must stay up at night thinking of new ways that they can cater to Islam. Just the other day I posted that Muslims in the UK might get their own police division. Now non-Muslim female officers in two UK counties will be forced to wear headscarves upon entering a Mosque. I can't wait to see what they come up with next.

The Church of England yesterday overthrew 2,000 years of history by giving its blessing to couples having children before they marry. It declared that although sex is best kept for marriage, couples who live together and have children without a wedding will no longer be regarded as living in sin. Instead they will be encouraged to adopt traditional values at newly created services in which they will be able both to marry and baptise their children. The new services mean that the CofE is openly accepting sex before marriage among its congregations - something rejected across two millennia of...

BREAKING NEWS: Girl, 13, arrested with machine gun after raid on south London flat Martin Bentham, Home Affairs Editor 22.07.09 Specialist officers raided the girl's home in CroydonA 13-year-old girl has been arrested by armed Met police after a sub-machinegun was found in her wardrobe.The weapon was discovered when a specialist anti-gang crime squad of 15 officers with hydraulic battering rams and combat shields raided the girl's home in Croydon.She was detained on suspicion of possessing a firearm, an offence which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years for adults and three for juveniles.The raid, which police say...

  Council removes Christian paediatrician from adoption panel A paediatrician has been removed as a medical adviser to Northamptonshire County Council after asking to abstain from making recommendations on the placement of children with same-sex couples. by Jenna Lyle Posted: Sunday, July 19, 2009, 10:15 (BST)  Dr Sheila Matthews, who has been a medical adviser to the Council’s adoption panel for five years, said she believed it would be “inappropriate” to place children in a household with same sex parents.“Using my professional judgement and having done a lot of reading around the subject, I am satisfied that there are...

Britain’s Leaders Warn of the Loss of Common Values The decline of Christianity and moral values in general is reaching new lows in Britain. While the number of faithful has been decreasing for some time now, warnings about the situation are starting to come from all quarters. Britain is no longer a Christian nation, affirmed Anglican bishop, Paul Richardson, in an article published Jun. 27 in the Sunday Telegraph newspaper. The Anglican prelate was also critical of his fellow bishops for not understanding just how serious the change is in contemporary culture, and for their lack of action in dealing...

Mother sues hospital for £1.5million for 'missing' baby's severe disability Last updated at 10:09 AM on 16th July 2009 The mother of a five-year-old boy facing a lifetime of severe disability is seeking a £1.5million payout in a unique 'wrongful birth' case. Rupert Parsons, who met Prince Harry at a Child of Courage presentation, has to breathe and eat through tubes and will need a lifetime of round-the-clock care. The youngster was born at Musgrove Park Hospital in his Taunton home town in September 2003 suffering from 'severe, profound and multiple disabilties', including congenital heart defects, a single kidney, a...

A Terminator-like cyborg arm could offer new hope to amputees and victims of paralysis.   The mechanical limb, which is controlled by thought alone, has a fully mobile shoulder and elbow, and a sensitive 'gripper' that mimics a human hand.  A microchip implanted in the brain is linked to a sensor in the prosthetic, which 'reads' the signals and reacts instantaneously.Professor Kevin Warwick, a professor of cybernetics at the University of Reading and pioneer of the amazing new technology, said: 'It has the potential to radically change the lives of the disabled, and revolutionise the way we treat those...

A 350ft crop circle of an ancient Mayan symbol, said to be a sign of an impending apocalypse, has appeared next to Silbury Hill in Wiltshire. The giant pattern - thought to represent a traditional Mayan head-dress - appeared next to the tallest prehistoric man-made mound in Europe last week. Members of the crop circle community believe the mystic symbol is a signal of the end of the 5,126-year Mayan 'Long Count' calendar on December 21, 2012. Karen Alexander, a crop circle enthusiast, said: "This is one of the most interesting crop circles I have ever seen. It is definitely...