Free Republic

What links the Copenhagen conference with the steelworks closing in Redcar? The carbon credits boom is already costing British jobs, says Christopher Booker. By Christopher Booker 12 Dec 2009 Comments 114 | Comment on this article The Corus steelworks in Redcar, North Yorkshire, the town's main employer, is to be closed Photo: SCOTT HEPPELL/PA What is the connection between Dr Rajendra Pachauri, the Indian railway engineer who has been much in evidence at the Copenhagen climate conference, as chairman of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and an Indian-owned steel company's decision to mothball its giant Teesside steel works...

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan (AFP) – British Prime Minister Gordon Brown vowed a renewed effort to defeat the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan as he made an unannounced visit to troops in the field Sunday. Brown made the visit two weeks after ordering the deployment of 500 extra British troops to Afghanistan alongside a surge of 30,000 US forces, part of a sweeping new strategy to turn around the eight-year war. He held talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai at a military base in Kandahar, the southern province where the Taliban first emerged and one of the deadliest battlefields for Western troops...

Miliband Ordered A Ban On Helping MEPs Who Have Far Right Views David Miliband has secretly banned British embassy staff from giving help to BNP leader Nick Griffin. The Foreign Secretary has also ordered diplomats not to assist the far-Right party’s other MEP, former National Front leader Andrew Brons. A letter, entitled ‘Handling Extremist MEPs’ and marked ‘Restricted’, was circulated to the heads of Britain’s European embassies after the pair were elected to the European Parliament in June. Written by Matthew Rycroft, the UK’s top European Union diplomat, it says far-Right MEPs, like other British members of the European Parliament,...

Britain’s financiers and entrepreneurs are quitting the UK at a rate of 10 a week to avoid Labour’s new 50% taxes. The burgeoning exodus threatens to deepen a £178 billion black hole in the public finances and leave middle-class voters with higher taxes for years to come, figures obtained from Companies House reveal. The number of directors of British businesses registered as living in the low-tax centres of Jersey, Guernsey or the Isle of Man has risen by almost 500 to 6,729 in the past 12 months. The British Virgin Islands is also a popular destination, with 615 directors of...

In an apparent set back for secret official efforts to announce the existence of extraterrestrial life, the British Ministry of Defence (MOD) has just closed its UFO desk. After 50 years of having an official reporting mechanism in place for public sightings of UFOs, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defence stated that the funds could be better used for the Afghanistan war. What is the impact of the British MOD decision to close its UFO desk? Why was such an announcement made now given that only a trivial amount of public funds (44,000 pounds/US$73,000 a year) will be saved...

Quite a bit different from their November 24th statement, which you can read here. For those that still think Climategate has no significant impact on climate science, this revelation tells another story. Met Office to re-examine 160 years of climate dataBen Webster, Environment Editor, The Times OnlineThe Met Office plans to re-examine 160 years of temperature data after admitting that public confidence in the science on man-made global warming has been shattered by leaked e-mails. The new analysis of the data will take three years, meaning that the Met Office will not be able to state with absolute confidence the...

One of Labour's great triumphs with the National Health Service is that people now go into hospital to die rather than to be cured. It seems to render the whole debate about assisted suicide utterly pointless. Who needs a Dignitas clinic when you can check into a hospital in Basildon and be relatively certain to be taken out in a box? It is a further achievement of our monitoring, regulating culture that even the monitors and the regulators don't seem to have a clue how bad things are – or they certainly didn't in Basildon. This exposes one of the...

World powers united in condemnation of Iran's nuclear activities yesterday in a rare show of international consensus on the threat posed by Tehran's continued nuclear defiance. China and Russia joined the United States, Britain, France and Germany in backing an International Atomic Energy Agency resolution censuring Iran and ordering it to halt construction of a secret uranium enrichment plant. The resolution, the first since February 2006, passed with 25 votes and six abstentions. Only Malaysia, Venezuela and Cuba supported Iran. ...China, which has shared Moscow's reluctance to take a hard line with Tehran, was reportedly persuaded to support the resolution...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

(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...

LONDON (AFP) – Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced on Monday a 16-billion-pound sale of state assets including a high-speed railway and a betting service to cut soaring debt caused by the economic crisis. Brown -- facing a likely election defeat next year by David Cameron's Conservative Party -- wants to halve Britain's deficit in four years. But opposition politicians derided the asset sale as a political gimmick and compared it to a "national car boot sale" and "selling the family silver." The planned disposals, which also include a 33-percent stake in European uranium consortium URENCO and the Student Loan Company....

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...

A 19-year-old Canadian must wait two years before she can return to the United Kingdom to be reunited with her husband after a law meant to protect vulnerable young women from forced marriage helped tear them apart. The newlyweds have become the unintended victims of changes to British immigration law meant to discourage Britons and their families from bringing young, unwilling brides from overseas and forcing them into often abusive marriages.She entered the country on a six-month visa with plans to leave again a month later, but she fell in love and decided to marry and begin a life in...

I just saw that the Mayor of London (Boris Johnson): has recommended that non-Muslims take the opportunity of the month of Ramadan to fast, along with their Muslim neighbors, in order to promote "understanding between cultures." Here’s a better idea. One of my degrees is in Comparative Religion. As a result, I have read the Koran about a dozen times. (I have three copies in my library.) Instead of fasting for Ramadan go out and buy or borrow or even look up the Koran on the Internet. Read the book. Discover for yourself if Islam is really a religion of...

THERE were angry clashes in a city centre today as right-wing protesters fought with anti-fascist campaigners in a busy shopping street. A planned demonstration by The English Defence League in central Birmingham descended into violence as the group charged along New Street, close to the city's main train station. One onlooker said: "There were about 250 people in total, fighting and throwing bottles at each other." The disorder spilled onto the adjoining Bennetts Hill, a street lined with a number of pubs, popular with shoppers. Dozens of riot police worked to contain the disturbance and a police helicopter hovered overhead....

There were angry clashes in a city centre today as right-wing protesters fought with anti-fascist campaigners in a busy shopping street. A planned demonstration by The English Defence League in central Birmingham descended into violence as the group charged along New Street, close to the city's main train station. More than twenty men have been arrested. 'There were about 250 people in total, fighting and Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1211414/Anti-fascists-clash-right-wing-protesters-Birmingham.html#ixzz0QFxinqVM

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.

More than one-in-ten British businesses are seriously considering a move abroad because of the Government's "punitive" tax regime, a damning new survey claims.

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...

Evidence is mounting that the Lockerbie bomber's decision to drop his appeal against conviction was part of a secret deal ahead of his release. A leaked email suggests that Abdelbaset Ali Al Megrahi was quietly urged to abandon a potentially embarrassing court battle to clear his name in return for freedom.

The British government decided it was “in the overwhelming interests of the United Kingdom” to make Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed 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 criticised for taking the formal decision to permit Megrahi’s release. The correspondence makes it plain that the key...

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.

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...

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....

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said the United States will restrict intelligence-sharing with the U.K. if a British court reveals secret details of a former Guantanamo Bay detainee's treatment, a British government lawyer said Wednesday. Karen Steyn, a lawyer acting on behalf of the British government, told Britain's High Court that Clinton had explained to her counterpart, Foreign Secretary David Miliband, that intelligence sharing between the two countries is at risk if a court makes public so far undisclosed sections of a 2008 ruling on the alleged torture of Binyam Mohamed. Mohamed, an Ethiopian who moved to Britain as...

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.

Company director arrested for attempted murder after rescuing son being beaten by yobs 25th July 2009 A company director has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after confronting a gang of yobs who were attacking his stepson. Colin Philpott, 58, allegedly stabbed a 16-year-old in the chest during the incident in the front garden of his £500,000 Tudor-style house. He had awoken late on Friday night to discover stepson Alex Lee being beaten by the group of teenagers. Mr Lee, 25, had gone outside to stop the gang from vandalising Mr Philpott’s Jaguar car. Mr Lee was said to...

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...

Here I was in a rather small capital of Northern Ireland, which is still and probably always will be a part of the United Kingdom --an opinion of which I don't have. But anyways, it's a city hall! And, on the grounds of this city hall (it's a small city with a population of some 267,500 according to the NISRA), there's a memorial that dedicates the lives of those that fought and died in Korea nearly sixty years ago. All because of the words of one man -- Harry Truman (who single handedly decided to intervene in the Korean War;...

  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...

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...

Mr Adams said householders who refused to take part in the scheme could face higher council tax rates and, when they sell, the threat of raised stamp duty which could put off prospective buyers. Ministers may also relax planning rules, which could see wind turbines on roofs even in conservation areas and on listed buildings. Last night Matthew Sinclair, of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'It is absolutely shocking that the Government is still threatening new bogus green taxes when taxpayers are already paying a fortune in higher prices for their electricity, gas and petrol thanks to ineffective global warming policies....

A DODGY accent and startling false teeth were all that was needed to turn Canadian actor Mike Myers into the British super-spy Austin Powers. In “The Simpsons”, a television show, Ralph Wiggum’s dentist scares him into brushing with the decaying snaggle-teeth of the (fictional) “Big Book of British Smiles”. And there is some truth behind the awful stereotype: the factory workers of Britain’s Industrial Revolution were fed on sugar from the colonies, and led the known world in dental caries. Early in the 20th century Americans were brushing and flossing while some British dentists still believed that chomping on hard...

LONDON – A lawmaker at the center of Britain's growing expense account scandal said Saturday he has been humiliated by public revelations about his attempt to get taxpayers to pay for a duck hut on his country estate. Opposition Conservative Party legislator Peter Viggers' duck hut — used to shield ducks from predators — has become a potent symbol of expense account excess in recent days. He tried in vain to bill taxpayers 1,645 pounds ($2,600) for the structure — just one of many misdeeds in a scandal that has turned British voters against their elected representatives and led many...

"A new method of losing weight by betting on your own success is gaining popularity in the UK. Bet dieters join a website and make a commitment to lose a certain amount of weight over a defined period of time. Then, if they fail to meet their targets, money is withdrawn from their account and paid to a charity of their choice. The scheme started in the US, but already has more than 1,000 followers in the UK. Not only are people who sign up hit in the wallet if they fail, their friends can get to hear about it...