Free Republic

David Cameron's second term as British Prime Minister was confirmed Friday after his Conservative Party won enough seats to form a working majority in the 650-member House of Commons. Shortly before noon Friday, London time, the Conservatives, or Tories, had won 324 seats to 229 It would be the first time the Conservatives had won a parliamentary majority since 1992. Cameron is the first Conservative Prime Minister to win re-election since Margaret Thatcher.

Ed Miliband and David Cameron launched attacks on each other's character in angry Commons exchanges over televised election debates. The Labour leader accused the PM of "chickening out" of a debate with him, saying: "Like all bullies, when the heat is really on he runs for cover." Mr Cameron attacked Mr Miliband as "despicable and weak" for not ruling out a post-election deal with the SNP. It came amid a fresh effort to break the TV debate deadlock.

n his acceptance speech Mr Carswell, who gained 21,113 votes (59.75%) on a 44% swing from the Conservatives, said: "I resigned from parliament to face this election because I answer first, foremost and last to you. You are my boss. I will not let you down. "To my new party I offer these thoughts: humility when we win, modesty when we are proved right. If we speak with passion, let it always be tempered by compassion. "We must be a party for all Britain and all Britons: first and second generation as much as every other. Our strength must lie...

National parliaments should be able to initiate reviews of existing EU law, according to a report by the UK parliament. The paper, published on Monday (24 March), by the House of Lords’ EU committee, says domestic lawmakers should have more power in the EU legislative process. “There should be a way for a group of like-minded national parliaments to make constructive suggestions for EU policy initiatives,” it notes. “We would envisage a ‘Green Card’ as recognizing a right for a number of national parliaments working together to make constructive policy or legislative suggestions, including for the review or repeal of...

Canada will never be a safe haven for zombies.” In other news, the Canadian government is much for fun than the American government. The Canadian government has gone on the record about the zombie apocalypse. In an amazing exchange on the floor of the House of Commons today, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird was asked if he was working to "develop an international zombie strategy so that a zombie invasion does not turn into a zombie apocalypse." New Democratic Party Parliament Member Pat Martin applauded the United States Center for Disease Control's emergency preparedness measures premised on a zombie outbreak...

It’s rather dismaying to see the thoughtful and well-regarded online magazine Front Porch Republic being roiled by a series of articles written by editor John Medaille celebrating the virtues of monarchism as compared to democracy. I don’t believe John’s point was call for the U.S. to build its own Buckingham Palace or design its own crown and scepter, which will never happen in a million years. It was to simply show the follies of democratism as a guarantor of the public’s liberties compared to an enlightened king (one tyrant 3,000 miles away as compared to 3,000 tyrants one mile a...

The horrific story of the latest adventure conducted by the religion of peace in Bombay riveted the public’s attention to such an extent that one of the most egregious violations of political freedom in a Western democracy has, at least on this side of the Atlantic, gone almost without comment. I mean the sudden arrest in London last week of of Damian Green, a conservative MP and Shadow Minister for Immigration, who was seized by anti-terrorist personnel from the Metropolitan police, held for questioning for 9 hours, and whose private papers and computer files in his home and office in...

SCOTLAND Yard believes it has thwarted an al-Qaeda nerve gas attack aimed at ministers and MPs in the British Parliament. The plot, hatched last year, is understood to have been discovered in coded emails on computers seized from terror suspects in Britain and Pakistan. Police and MI5 later identified an al-Qaeda cell that had carried out extensive research and video-recorded reconnaissance missions in preparation for the terror attack. The encrypted emails are said to have been decoded with the assistance of an al-Qaeda "supergrass". By revealing the terrorists' code, he was also able to help MI5 and GCHQ - the...

Like pensions and insurance, defence is one of those subjects to which too many people only pay attention when things go wrong. You might think, in the light of the past decade, that this would have changed. But you would be sadly mistaken. Even today, even after Iraq, few mainstream MPs without an immediate personal or constituency interest in the subject turn up in the Commons for defence debates. Many politicians who are thoughtful about a range of domestic issues still pass by on the other side when the conversation gravitates to the military. In this they reflect the British...

London - You might want to take that vacation in England just as soon as you can – before its 1,000-year run as a sovereign nation comes to an end. This winter, 27 nations of the European Union (EU) signed the Treaty of Lisbon. You may think, "Innocuous enough," as Portuguese-inspired visions of the Tagus River and chicken piri-piri swirl before your eyes. But for England (Britain, actually) the Treaty of Lisbon isn't that appetizing. That's because, if ratified, it will become the decisive act in this creation of a federal European superstate with its capital in Brussels. Britain would...

OTTAWA -- The Federal Government is set to introduce a bill that would give Alberta, B.C., and Ontario extra seats in the House of Commons. The bill to be tabled Wednesday would add 22 seats to the Commons, which currently has only 308. It would give Alberta five extra seats, while B.C. gets seven and Ontario receives 10. These provinces would get more seats after the 2011 census to reflect their population growth. Provinces whose growth is static or even dwindling would keep the seats they have now. The bill is essentially an amendment to the Constitution, but because it...

Prime Minister Steve Harper did it again last week. With little prior warning, he disclosed his intention of carrying out yet another promise he made during last winter's election campaign. He intends to launch a "step-by-step" reform of the Canadian Senate, arguably the most baffling and pointless legislative body extant in any Western democracy. To Ottawa's seasoned skeptics his announcement was doubly shocking. First, unlike almost all his prime ministerial predecessors, Harper apparently takes seriously the promises he made back then. One of those predecessors, Liberal Jean Chretien, announced at one point that he considered it unfair to demand that...

Without winning a single Toronto seat, Prime Minister Stephen Harper could secure a majority in the next election. Mathematically, the possibility has always been there. Toronto has just 23 of the 308 seats in Parliament. What wasn't initially clear was whether Harper would try to build a winning coalition without Toronto. The emerging consensus: Yes. Political insiders at city hall, Queen's Park and on Parliament Hill expect the Prime Minister to make Quebec his top priority. The Conservatives now hold just 10 of the province's 75 seats. As a secondary thrust, Harper will target ridings his party lost by a...

BOMBAY (AFX) - An Indian court has jailed a man for plotting to crash passenger jets into the House of Commons and the Tower Bridge in London on Sept 11, 2001, Agence France-Presse reported. The court here handed down a seven-year prison term to Mohammed Afroze, who had also confessed to plotting with a group of Al-Qaeda operatives to attack Melbourne's Rialto Towers and the Indian parliament in 2001. Afroze told the police in Bombay after fleeing from Britain to India four years ago that he and seven Al-Qaeda terror cell operatives planned to hijack the passenger jets at Heathrow...

Blunkett takes aim at crime to outflank the Tories By Philip Webster, Political Editor   Mr Blunkett has put security from outside threats at the heart of the next election campaign. (LEON NEAL) CRIME and drugs will become a key battleground tomorrow for next year’s general election as the Government promises a range of measures that are aimed at making people feel safer in their homes and neighbourhoods. David Blunkett has won places for at least six separate Bills in the final Queen’s Speech before the election in a move agreed by the Cabinet to prevent Labour being outflanked...

An overwhelming majority of British MPs of all parties, including Prime Minister, Tony Blair, have made written statements declaring that they would not support any military action against Cuba by the United States. They illustrate the gulf between US foreign policy and the views of members of the British House of Commons. A report issued today, reveals that 79% of MPs, who responded to letters from their constituents on the question of aggressive US policy towards Cuba, stated that not only would they not support US military action, but that they also thought the Bush administration should change its policies...

Hunt protesters invade Commons(Filed: 15/09/2004)MPs have voted in favour of a Bill to ban hunting with dogs following a debate that was briefly suspended when five pro-hunting protesters broke into the House of Commons. The Bill was backed by a vote of 356 to 166 after a tense afternoon when riot police were brought in to Parliament Square to control pro-hunting protesters. Four of the protesters reached the floor of the House from behind the Speaker's chair before one of the men confronted Alun Michael, the rural affairs minister. He shouted: "This isn't democracy. You are overturning democracy." Another man...

MPs to move out in terror attackBy George Jones, Political Editor (Filed: 25/06/2004) Parliament will move from Westminster if there is a terrorist attack on the Commons or Lords under security plans announced yesterday. A briefing paper issued to all MPs and staff in the Palace of Westminster by Sir Michael Cummins, the Serjeant at Arms, discloses the plan for the first evacuation of Parliament for 300 years. "If, for whatever reason, either or both Houses are unable to sit in their chambers, alternative locations are planned and available within and outside London," Sir Michael said. His briefing follows a...

Shorcan Index Election Indicator Prices updated hourly. Last update at 23/06/04 16:00 Bid Offer Change Liberals 32.2 33.2 -0.20 Conservatives 31.8 32.8 +0.30 NDP 17.3 17.8 +0.20 Bloc Québécois 11.8 12.3 -0.10 Green Party 5.1 5.6 +0.20

Powder Attack on Tony Blair Done in Service of a Just Cause By Glenn Sacks "I haven't seen my daughter for five years." Shouting these words, an English protester hit British Prime Minister Tony Blair with a packet of purple flour as Blair answered questions on the floor of the House of Commons a few days ago. A somewhat panicked parliamentary session was quickly suspended. The aggrieved father, Ron Davis, and his fellow protester, Guy Harrison, are part of a nonviolent resistance campaign launched by the popular English fathers' rights group Fathers 4 Justice. The group uses purple because purple...