Free Republic

The taxpayer is having to fund millions of pounds a year to "bribe" foreign murderers, rapists and other prisoners to go home after a 60 per cent jump in cases. One in four of the foreign criminals who were deported last year only went home after being offered a voluntary return package worth up to £5,000. It means ministers spent £3.4 million of public money encouraging offenders who have no right to be in Britain to leave. It emerged earlier this week that one of those was a Malaysian migrant who killed a 17-month-old baby. Some foreign prisoners can already...

Terrorist suspects under control orders have received more than £600,000 in taxpayers' money for items including household bills and telephone costs. Home Office figures published in Parliament show that since April 2007, the department has spent £611,470 on “living costs” for people put under effective house arrest on the advice of MI5. The money has been spent on accommodation, council tax, utility bills, telephone line rental, prepaid telephone cards, phone bills and “other subsistence," the Home Office said. As well as living expenses, the Government is also paying some of the terror suspects undisclosed sums in benefits. There are currently...

British forces should buy off potential Taleban recruits with “bags of gold”, according to a new army field manual published yesterday. Army commanders should also talk to insurgent leaders with “blood on their hands” in order to hasten the end of the conflict in Afghanistan. The edicts, which are contained in rewritten counter-insurgency guidelines, will be taught to all new army officers. They mark a strategic rethink after three years in which British and Nato forces have failed to defeat the Taleban. The manual is also a recognition that the Army’s previous doctrine for success against insurgents, which was based...

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: "I didn't think for one moment I would be arrested. "I...

The country has for the first time overtaken France as the abortion capital of Europe - even though France has a population of 65m compared to Britain's approximate 59m - and now ranks fifth in the world behind Russia, the US, India and Japan. Teenage pregnancy rates in Britain have increased by almost a third over the past decade with half of all pregnancies among girls who are under 18 now ending in a termination.

A 27-YEAR-old asylum seeker who exposed himself to female paramedics as they were taking him to Selly Oak Hospital has been jailed for 12 months. The paramedics picked up Adam Mohammed ...after a heavy drinking session. He said the year-long sentence would normally result in automatic deportation, but ruled it was unsatisfactory because Mohammed could not be sent back to the Sudan because of the political situation in that country. Mohammed ...had made earlier court appearances

An executive has won the right to sue his employer on the basis that he was unfairly dismissed for his green views after a judge ruled that environmentalism had the same weight in law as religious and philosophical beliefs. 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". The ruling could open the door for employees to sue their companies for failing to account for their green lifestyles, such as providing recycling...

We’ve had it with sexism, racism, religious prejudice – all now considered utterly unacceptable in the workplace. Will employees across UK Plc now have to start watching their tongues in case they are guilty of greenism? After yesterday’s legal landmark ruling, “a belief in man-made climate change … is capable, if genuinely held, of being a philosophical belief” akin to religion. This judgment means a company must not discriminate against someone because of their deeply-held environmental convictions. So no more jokes about the office hippy at the sustainable water-cooler then. It has all come about because Tim Nicholson, 42, of...

Cambridge University will allow female Muslim students to wear burkas at graduation ceremonies, it emerged yesterday. By tradition, students are required to wear dark suits and white shirts under their graduation gowns. Cambridge has clamped down on breaches of the rules after officials complained students were increasingly wearing casual clothes to ceremonies. They warned the code 'is strictly enforced at ceremonies, and if you do not observe it, you may not be permitted to graduate on a particular occasion'. Yesterday it clarified that clothing linked to religious observance, such as burkas, would still be allowed. Scottish students who want to...

Parents are being banned from playing with their children in council recreation areas because they have not been vetted by police. Mothers and fathers are being forced to watch their children from outside perimeter fences because of fears they could be paedophiles. Watford Council was branded a 'disgrace' yesterday after excluding parents from two fenced-off adventure playgrounds unless they first undergo criminal record checks. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1223528/Parents-banned-supervising-children-playgrounds--case-paedophiles.html?ITO=1490&referrer=yahoo#ixzz0VHOjDcVJ

After witnessing a gay pride march, committed Christian Pauline Howe wrote to the council to complain that the event had been allowed to go ahead. But instead of a simple acknowledgement, she received a letter warning her she might be guilty of a hate crime and that the matter had been passed to police. Two officers later turned up at the frightened grandmother's home and lectured her about her choice of words before telling her she would not be prosecuted. Mrs Howe, 67, whose husband Peter is understood to be a Baptist minister, yesterday spoke of her shock at the...

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...

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. Ministers hoped to change the country radically and 'rub the Right's nose...

It may have been one of the least plausible attempts to avoid deportation - but it worked. An illegal immigrant was allowed to stay in Britain because he had a cat, it was revealed yesterday. The unnamed Bolivian was spared deportation after he told a court that he and his girlfriend had bought the animal as a pet. Immigration judges ruled that sending him back home would breach his human rights by interfering with his family life. The decision by the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal caused 'disappointment' at the Home Office and amazement among anti-immigration campaigners, who questioned why the...

A Christian couple in England is now at risk of losing their business after being prosecuted for debating Islam with a Muslim guest. Police arrested Ben and Sharon Vogelenzang, who run the Bounty House Hotel in Liverpool, after a Muslim woman complained that she was offended by comments made to her in March. Because the legal case is ongoing the couple cannot comment publicly. According to newspaper reports, the debate at the hotel involved discussion of whether Jesus was the son of God or just a minor prophet of Islam. Newspapers also reported the debate included comments that Mohammed was...

A RADICAL Muslim group sparked outrage last night as it launched a massive campaign to impose sharia law on Britain.The fanatical group Islam4UK has ­announced plans to hold a potentially ­incendiary rally in London later this month. And it is calling for a complete upheaval of the British legal system, its officials and ­legislation. Members have urged Muslims from all over Britain to converge on the capital on October 31 for a procession to demand the full implementation of sharia law. On a website to promote their cause they deride British institutions, showing a mock-up picture of Nelson’s Column surmounted...

The Archbishop of Canterbury called for an end to economic growth to save the planet. Dr Rowan Williams said that economic growth based on consumer power had led to towards 'the death of what is most distinctively human'.

UK - Householders could be fined £1,000 if they throw food scraps and potato peelings into the dustbin under a Government 'zero waste' policy. They will be forced to sift through their rubbish for anything that can be recycled, reused, rotted or burnt for electricity. The crackdown will create so much recyclable material that homes could be given five wheelie bins and waste boxes to cope. The controversial zero waste policy - part of the Government's drive to cut greenhouse gas emissions - will be unveiled tomorrow by Environment Minister Hilary Benn. The plans are due to be outlined at...

BRITAIN continues its descent into a socialist hell, devoid of any justice or morality. We now live in a sub-Marxist world where the ultra-politicised institutions of the State wield arbitrary power, bullying the decent members of the public while dangerous criminals walk free. The legal system is fast becoming an instrument of oppression rather than a bulwark of civilisation. Such is the grip of Left-wing thinking on our so-called law enforcers that they are no longer willing to protect society from violence and thuggery.

List of mandatory subjects and their content, which England's 20,000 schools must teach, will be "radically simplified" if the Conservatives win power at the next election, a party source said. A team of teachers, academics and subject specialists are being brought together to focus initially on maths, English, science and history, subjects seen by David Cameron's education team as the vital core around which school lessons should be built. The new framework for primary and secondary schools will cut the detailed diktats about how and what to teach which have been issued under Labour. The team is also expected to...

Britain's first workplace parking levy, which will see companies charged for enabling their staff to commute by car, has been formally endorsed by Nottingham City Council. The scheme is expected to set a precedent for other cities across the country, especially following the collapse of the Government's "pay as you drive" road pricing scheme and the attempt to introduce a congestion charge in Greater Manchester. Although employers, offering 11 or more parking spaces, will be expected to pay the levy, which will start at £250 a year, they will be free to pass the cost onto their employees. Milton Keynes,...

Today, Deputy Judge David Elvin QC, quashed Justice Secretary Jack Straw's decision to continue detaining the prisoner, known only as 'A', in a male prison. He was told that steps were already being put in place to transfer A to a female prison 'as soon as possible'. The move will pave the way for 'A' to have the operation to fully change from a woman to a man. He has to live openly as a woman for two years before having the procedure. A's health authority will have to foot the £8,000 bill for his sex change operation. --- Although...

Demand for power from homes and businesses will exceed supply from the national grid within eight years, according to official figures. The shortage of supplies will hit the equivalent of many as 16 million families for at least one hour during the year, it is forecast. Industrial strikes 1972: workers playing cards in candlelight Not since the early 1970s when the three-day week was introduced to preserve coal has Britain faced the prospect of reationing energy use. The gap between Britain’s energy needs and demand throws fresh doubt on Government’s assertion that renewable energy can make up for dwindling nuclear...

The British government decided it was “in the overwhelming interests of the United Kingdom” to make Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber, eligible for return to Libya, leaked ministerial letters reveal. Gordon Brown’s government made the decision after discussions between Libya and BP over a multi-million-pound oil exploration deal had hit difficulties. These were resolved soon afterwards. The letters were sent two years ago by Jack Straw, the justice secretary, to Kenny MacAskill, his counterpart in Scotland, who has been widely critizised for taking the formal decision to permit Megrahi’s release.

BBC Shropshire The coroner who conducted the inquest into the deaths of Christopher Foster, his wife Jill and their daughter Kirstie in Shropshire called for changes in the way shotgun and firearms licences are issued and renewed. The British Medical Association (BMA) and Association of Chief Police Officers have discussed ways in which doctors can be made aware of patients who own firearms. The BMA's plan to "tag" - or highlight - the medical records of patients who have shotgun or firearms licences have received a mixed reaction. Osbaston House was totally destroyed by fire Last August Bank Holiday Mr...

The number of jobless households has risen at its fastest rate since Labour came to power with almost five million people now living in homes where no one works. New figures reveal a massive 4.8million people of working age now live in a home where no one holds down a job. The data for April to June this year shows an increase of 500,000 on a year ago before the recession took a crippling grip on Britain. The percentage of households where no adults work is now 16.9 per cent, up 1.1 per cent on 2008, according to the data...

Europe continues to move to Islamic Sharia rule: Several British swimming pools require non-Muslims to dress like Muslims to avoid offending them, even though the sessions are held separately for men and women.

This may be closer to reality than you think You’re sound asleep when you hear a thump outside your bedroom door. Half-awake, and nearly paralyzed with fear, you hear muffled whispers. At least two people have broken into your house and are moving your way. With your heart pumping, you reach down beside your bed and pick up your shotgun. You rack a shell into the chamber, then inch toward the door and open it. In the darkness, you make out two shadows. One holds something that looks like a crowbar. When the intruder brandishes it as if to strike,...

Children who speak English as their first language are now a minority in inner-city London primary schools, official figures showed yesterday. Youngsters with a different mother tongue form a majority in primaries in 13 out of 33 London boroughs and in nearby Slough. In inner London, 54 per cent of primary pupils and 48.5 per cent in secondary institutions do not speak English as their first language. This amounts to an astonishing 159,340 children. Across the country, English is a foreign language to more than one in seven primary youngsters - almost half a million. The figures from the Department...

Poor students to be given two grade 'head start' when applying for university places DANIEL MARTIN 09th August 2009 Unfair: Middle class students are losing out as they are not given priority Children from poorer backgrounds applying to university could be given a two-grade 'head start' under plans being examined by Lord Mandelson. Told by ministers to widen access, some colleges and medical schools are already lowering entry requirements for working-class applicants by as much as two A-level grades, it emerged yesterday. This means school leavers from middle-class households are being turned down for places despite doing better in exams...

Recently I posted an article about two UK counties which now require their female police officers to put on a headscarf before entering a Mosque. But as usual, the politically correct Brits have to continue their quest to be the # 1 caters to Islam. This time three policewomen were ordered to dress as Muslim women for one day to experience what it is like. This would make great material for Monty Python.

THOUSANDS of the worst families in England are to be put in “sin bins” in a bid to change their bad behaviour, Ed Balls announced yesterday. The Children’s Secretary set out £400million plans to put 20,000 problem families under 24-hour CCTV super-vision in their own homes. They will be monitored to ensure that children attend school, go to bed on time and eat proper meals. Private security guards will also be sent round to carry out home checks, while parents will be given help to combat drug and alcohol addiction.

When Anisa Borsberry confronted a group of playground bullies she hoped it would finally bring an end to her 11-year-old daughter’s ordeal. But the next day she found she herself was the victim . . . with the forces of law and order lined up against her. Eight police officers in three patrol cars and a van descended on her home and arrested her. Anisa Borsberry with daughter Taylor, 11 The 40-year-old was marched out in handcuffs even though a claim that she had hit one of the bullies had already been withdrawn. She then had her fingerprints and DNA...

The country’s first “workplace parking levy” will come into force in Nottingham in 2012 and is likely to be adopted by other councils. Under the scheme, any firm with 11 or more staff parking spaces will be charged £250 a year for each. That cost could rise to £350 within two years. Employers would be free to pass the cost on to their staff. An estimated 40,000 commuters in Nottingham drive to work and some businesses have threatened to leave the area if the scheme is introduced. Business associations oppose the extra cost, which has been put at more than...

A 25-year-old unemployed woman who was given an £8,000 operation to help her lose 16 stone is complaining because, as well as her weight loss, her benefits have been reduced. Laura Ripley, who has never worked, was given the operation on the NHS to help her slim down from 38 to 22 stone. But the 25-year-old, who receives £600 a month in benefits, is unhappy because as a result of losing weight she can no longer claim disability allowance amounting to an extra £340 a month. This, she says, means she cannot afford to eat healthily - causing her to...

Plans for the construction of a five-storey building which will be one of London’s biggest mosques have been given the go-ahead. Harrow Central Mosque will serve Muslim worshippers from across north London when it is built on Station Road. The designs include a 40m-high minaret, a gym, a crèche and a café within the 5,745 square metre development. It is expected to open next year after Harrow Council approved changes to the original plans, which were passed in June 2000. The planning committee has imposed conditions on the build, which include that a house on Station Road currently being used...

When you talk crime statistics with an establishment type in the UK, they always try to make things out to be better than they are. These days they have a very hard task. Crime in the UK is exploding at an alarming rate. According to recently released statistics, it’s the most violent place in the European Union. And those who parry that “it’s not as bad as the U.S.” — as so many do when talking crime statistics — are correct. The UK is worse. In the UK, there are 2,034 offenses per 100,000 people, way ahead of second-place Austria...

A mother has been banned from a primary school after confronting a bully who used her five-year- old son as a 'human punch bag'. Christine Hart, 38, calmly asked the pupil to 'please stop hitting' her son Arthur after he endured months of bullying despite several complaints to teachers. But a teaching assistant saw and hauled her off to the headmistress, who told her not to cross the school gates and to attend a hearing with the governors to discuss her conduct.

British frontline troops in Afghanistan are so short of helicopters and transport planes that they are being bailed out by the Russians. The Mail on Sunday has established that the Ministry of Defence is using civilian Russian-built Mi-8 and Mi-26 transport helicopters to ferry supplies and soldiers in Afghanistan. The pilots are freelance Russians and Ukrainians. Britain is also hiring massive commercial Russian Antonov aircraft to fly vehicles and heavy equipment from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire to Afghanistan.

Early summer is sports day season and it seems as if we are living at my sons' schools, watching with pride as their little legs pump across the field, their eyes screwed up in concentration as they attempt to keep that pesky egg on the spoon. But I find myself wondering why they try so hard when their teachers are so determined that there should be no winners, no matter how far a child streaks ahead of his classmates. Last Friday was my five-year-old son Jacob's first sports day at his primary school, and when he powered over the finish...

Pupils told they have a 'right' to a good sex life: That's the advice for youngsters from the NHS By DANIEL MARTIN 12th July 2009 'Unbelievable': An NHS leaflet is telling school pupils they have a 'right' to an enjoyable sex life and that 'an orgasm a day keeps the doctor away' The NHS is telling school pupils they have a 'right' to an enjoyable sex life and that it is good for their health. A Health Service leaflet says experts concentrate too much on the need for safe sex and loving relationships, and not enough on the pleasure it...

In a bid to stop Muslim extremists from becoming more militant, the UK Government is set to issue a guideline for police, directing them not to charge them in many hate crime cases, a move that has created outrage amongst critics. Officers will be advised to turn a blind eye on crimes such as incitement to religious hatred or viewing extremist material on the Internet. 'For instance, where there has been incitement or someone has been on the internet there can be a grey area where there is some discretion and it would be more sensible to avoid going down...

Britain is ready to cut its number of nuclear warheads as part of global deal to persuade Iran and North Korea to give up the arms race, PM Gordon Brown has said. The Prime Minister said US-brokered talks next year could pave the way for the UK to reduce its 160-warhead arsenal in return for proof from would-be nuclear states they had stopped their weapons programmes. Speaking at a G8 summit in Italy, Mr Brown insisted there was no question of abandoning plans to replace the Trident weapons system. UK Trident Missile But he signalled the number of British warheads...

Ready for EnviroCops? This is the question asked by Ed Morrissey at Hoit Air, who informs us of a London Times article about such a development: Whether the British public is ready or not, here come the EnviroCops. The Times of London reports that simply selling carbon credits hasn’t been enough to keep companies from potentially violating carbon-emissions limits. Now they will send green-jacketed police to monitor their operations. […]Of course, the British authorities do not have a Fourth Amendment to limit them, but even this may be a bit much for Brits to swallow. Green-jacketed inspectors can descend on...

Parents were banned from attending an inter-school sports day to protect pupils from kidnappers and paedophiles. The host school said they could not prevent 'unsavoury' characters from sneaking in. More than 270 pupils from four local primaries took part in the East Beds School Sports Partnership Athletics Day at Sandy Upper School in Biggleswade, Bedfordshire last week.

Prisoners on the run from Holleseley Bay prison cannot be identified because it would breach their rights to privacy, the Ministry of Justice has said.

Chris Bryant, who once posed in his underpants on a gay dating website, said he wanted clergy to be "much more open" to the idea of treating civil partnership ceremonies like traditional marriages. However, his suggestion goes directly against the rules of the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church, which state that only the union of a man and a woman can be celebrated by a priest in church.

The United Kingdom is the violent crime capital of Europe and has one of the highest rates of violence in the world, worse even than America, according to new research. Analysis of figures from the European Commission showed a 77 per cent increase in murders, robberies, assaults and sexual offences in the UK since Labour came to power. The total number of violent offences recorded compared to population is higher than any other country in Europe, as well as America, Canada, Australia and South Africa. Opposition leaders said the disclosures were a "damning indictment" of the Government's failure to tackle...

Cameron Apologises To Gays For Section 28: Law To Ban Promotion Of Homosexuality In Schools Was Wrong, Says Tory Leader By JAMES CHAPMAN 02nd July 2009 David Cameron has issued an extraordinary apology on behalf of the Conservative Party for legislation banning the promotion of homosexuality in schools. He said the party had 'got it wrong' when it introduced Section 28 in the late 1980s. It is one of a series of apologies Mr Cameron has made for his party's actions in government. The Scots received one in 2006 for having the poll tax imposed on them a year before...

The stark evidence of the growing imbalance between what the Government raises and what it spends is likely to intensify the political row over the public finances and may strengthen calls for cuts in spending. Treasury figures show that welfare payments will exceed income tax receipts by almost £25 billion. Normally, income tax receipts comfortably cover the benefits bill. In 2009/10, the Treasury is expecting to take in £140.5 billion in gross income tax receipts. Social security benefits are projected to be £164.7 billion. The disparity between tax revenue and welfare costs was identified by Andrew Brough, a fund manager...