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It's a strange omission: liberal pundits like CNN's Piers Morgan are fulminating over America's "gun culture" following Newtown's school massacre -- yet they seem blissfully ignorant about what happened after Britain's draconian handgun ban following a school massacre in Scotland, in 1996, eerily similar to Newtown's. After the ban, more than 160,000 law-abiding citizens gave up their handguns. The idea was to stop gun violence. But ironically, the ban had the opposite effect: crime-related gun violence jumped a whopping 40 percent in the two years after the ban. And since then, gun crime has continued to soar at an alarming...

That´s not to say it´s excusable, just that the appalling neglect of 38 patients at the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch is the logical result of the NHS´s untenable management structure. Imagine if everything at Tesco´s was free but rationed, and subject to delivery delays of several months. Then throw in the fact that there are no other free alternatives. You would have a nightmare on your hands--huge queues, attracted by the free goods, then further stretched by the long delays. Imagine how the staff would then behave--harrassed by the limitless demand of customers, but also in a tyrannical position of

‘Christmas gives us the opportunity to remember the Christmas story – the story about the birth of Jesus Christ and the hope that he brings to the countless millions who follow him,’ he said. ‘The Gospel of John tells us that in this man was life, and that his life was the light of all mankind, and that he came with grace, truth and love. Indeed, God’s word reminds us that Jesus was the Prince of Peace.’ He concluded: ‘So however you celebrate this time of year, it is my hope and prayer that you have a happy and peaceful...

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble warned Britain in a Sunday newspaper interview against “blackmailing” its EU partners in a bid to bring powers back home from Brussels. “We want to keep Britain in the EU and not force it out,” Schäuble told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. “But I will also say that does not mean anyone can blackmail us.” Asked whether a debate raging in Britain about a possible referendum on the country’s future in the 27-member bloc was “dangerous”, Schäuble said the European Union needed to be sending a clear message to the rest of the world. …

Apache co-pilot Prince Harry launched a missile attack on the Taliban in a devastating airstrike in Afghanistan. The 27-year-old was called in to provide air support to troops and discharged a 100lb Hellfire missile. The attack happened in late October, shortly after the prince returned to Afghanistan for his second tour of duty as gunship co-pilot. Captain Harry Wales – as he is known in the Army – is a co-pilot gunner in the Apache unit which has the highest ‘kill rate’ in the war. As the co-pilot gunner, Harry commands missions, fire the weapons, navigates and sometimes take over...

It is meant to be the season to be jolly - but Britain's towns and cities descended into chaos last night as binge-drinkers ditched festive spirit for mindless violence. On the day colloquially known as 'black eye Friday', police officers packed town centres on one of their busiest nights of the year. The last Friday before Christmas is traditionally a rowdy night due to the huge number of office parties taking place, the end of the academic term and workers being given Christmas bonuses.

An apology seems insufficient considering the circumstances. Telegraph: ******** Alexandra Hospital in Redditch is writing to 38 families after a massive legal action that exposed years of bad practice, ranging from nurses taunting patients to leaving an elderly woman unwashed for 11 weeks. In one of the worst cases, a man had starvation recorded as the cause of his death after being treated at the hospital for two months. Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, said last night that he was "disgusted and appalled" by what the families had been through, and that the Government was acting to ensure that failings...

SECURITY chiefs fear an al-Qaeda cell funded by the British “White Widow” plotted to bomb a German railway station, The Sun can reveal. The attack in Bonn would have resulted in a massacre like the one in the Spanish capital Madrid in 2004 which left 191 people dead. But the device failed to explode and was disarmed before it could detonate. Intelligence sources in Germany say that al-Qaeda was behind the conspiracy — which encompassed “many operatives” overseas, including wanted Brit Samantha Lewthwaite. Last night a source said: “Remember this was a primed device that was of the size of...

The nurse who committed suicide after answering a hoax phone call about the Duchess of Cambridge made two attempts to kill herself last winter, and had been prescribed antidepressants. Jacintha Saldanha, who took her own life days after the call from Australian DJs pretending to be the Queen and Prince Charles, attempted to commit suicide last December with an overdose of pills during a family visit to India. She survived after being rushed to hospital, but tried to commit suicide again just nine days later by apparently jumping from a building. … Although Saldanha’s family have previously said she did...

Britain pays out more on welfare than high spending social democratic nations in Scandinavia, according to a think-tank. Nearly seven out of ten children now live in a home that receives at least one cash handout other than child benefit, says the hard-hitting study by the Institute for Economic Affairs. And some 17 per cent of children – around 2.1 million – live in a home where no adult is working ‘easily the highest rate in Europe’. The think-tank’s report, Redefining the Poverty Debate, spells out how a generation of the less well-off have become enslaved to state benefits that...

The Archbishop of Canterbury backed stricter gun controls in the wake of the Sandy Hook school massacre, saying the ready availability of weapons in a society where fear is already "rampant" pushes people to extreme violence. Delivering BBC Radio 4's Thought for the Day, Dr Rowan Williams also warned that Britain had "better not be complacent" about the gang-related gun and knife crime affecting its own youngsters. A minute's silence was held in America on Friday to remember the 20 children and six adult victims of the Connecticut shootings which have thrust the fraught gun control debate back into the...

A Conservative MP who served as a soldier in Northern Ireland has questioned the need for prosecutions in the Bloody Sunday killings. On Thursday, it was revealed that a team of 15 detectives will head up a murder investigation into the 1972 shootings. They will be led by a senior investigating officer who will be based in Londonderry. Patrick Mercer said he is “confused” by this latest development and does not know what prosecutions will achieve. …

Vincent Banks, 44, from Smithfield, Dublin was brought before the Irish Special Criminal Court in Dublin on Wednesday where he was charged in connection with the murder in November of Northern Ireland prison officer David Black. Banks was charged with membership of an unlawful organization styling itself as the Irish Republican Army (IRA) on December 18th, 2012. Banks was also charged with withholding information in relation to the murder of David Black. …

Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, the country’s first woman elective leader, is in hospital recovering from surgery to remove a growth on her bladder, a source close to the family said on Friday. After experiencing pain in her bladder earlier in the week, he 87-year-old went to hospital where she underwent a minimally invasive operation, Tim Bell, a public relations executive who once served as image maker to Thatcher, said. …

A wave of biker gangs from the US, Canada and Australia arriving in Europe has raised fears of deadly turf battle like the Nordic biker wars of the 1990s, European police agency Europol warned on Friday. Gangs such as the Comancheros and Rebels from Australia, Rock Machine from Canada and the Mongols and Vagos from the US were moving into Europe. ... The gangs were seeking out particularly a dangerous hard core of recruits in their bid to seize territory to traffic drugs, weapons and people... The gangs "have a propensity to use extreme forms of violence", including with Kalashnikov...

BAE unveils £2.5 bn deal for military jets to Oman LONDON — British defence giant BAE Systems unveiled on Friday a £2.5-billion ($4.1-billion, 3.1-billion-euro) deal to sell 12 Eurofighter Typhoon combat jets and eight Hawk trainer planes to Oman. The deal, which will help sustain thousands of jobs in Britain, is the first major order since BAE Systems failed to merge with European aerospace giant EADS earlier this year, but failed to boost shares in the British company. "BAE Systems and the government of the Sultanate of Oman have entered into a contract for the supply of Typhoon and Hawk...

British troops could return home from Afghanistan even “faster” than planned, David Cameron has said, as 3,800 troops are scheduled to be withdrawn by the end of next year. … Speaking to reporters at Camp Bastion, the main operational headquarters for British troops, Mr. Cameron said the proposed timetable for troop withdrawals was “flexible”. “Of course there is always flexibility in any plan,” he said. “But I would make the point that so far, things have surprised on the upside in terms of the capability of the Afghan forces. So we might be able to move a little bit faster....

... there are over 2,000 crimes recorded per 100,000 population in the UK, making it the most violent place in Europe. By comparison, America has an estimated rate of 466 violent crimes per 100,000 population.

It’s easy to chuckle at Starbucks’ tax troubles. The java merchant that has successfully enticed millions to pay for the privilege of hearing words like “barista” and “doppio” sprinkled over their morning jolt has made a specialty of offering a little dollop of sanctimony in every cup, promising to calm the conscience even as it raises the heartbeat. Shibboleths like “sustainable,” “fair trade” and “responsibly grown” seem to add value to its self-regarding clientele. Alas, Starbucks’ now-notorious “tax avoidance” policy in the United Kingdom proves that once you start chugging a Venti of self-righteousness, you may find yourself getting force-fed...

A scathing report into the BBC's handling of a shelved Newsnight exposé of Jimmy Savile revealed a culture of "suspicion and mistrust" at the corporation, riven by factions and in-fighting with "rigid management chains" that rendered it "completely incapable" of dealing with the scandal when it was exposed. One senior BBC executive resigned and another three were moved from their jobs following the publication of the 185-page report by Nick Pollard, the former head of Sky News. After a six-week inquiry that examined more than 10,000 emails and other documents and interviewed 19 people, at a cost of £2m, Pollard...