Free Republic

Retired British Army Colonel Richard Kemp has said the primary risk the UK faces is from an alliance “of the hard left and Islamist extremists” and that he fears civil war because politicians are too myopic to take action. Colonel Richard Kemp, a high-profile Infantry officer who fought counter insurgency on home ground in Northern Ireland in the 1980s, served in the Gulf war and Bosnia, commanded an Afghanistan operation, and who had political-facing senior roles in Westminster including the powerful Joint Intelligence Committee and the Cabinet Office crisis centre COBRA, has expressed concern about unrest and even civil war...

The UK's Defence Secretary has said that Britain is willing to “put boots on the ground” to help enforce a ceasefire in Ukraine, in the event that one is agreed. Defence Secretary John Healey has commented the peace summit today in Alaska "could be the first step" towards peace in the Ukraine conflict. The minister also stated the government was prepared to "step up economic sanctions and pressure on Putin if he shows today in Alaska he really isn't serious". The Defence Secretary has affirmed the UK will continue to stand by Ukraine during these peace talks and has said:...

History is nothing but the pattern of silken slippers descending a staircase to the thunder of hobnailed boots climbing upward from below.-VoltaireAs a father raising daughters, I often reflect on the lessons that it is important to impart to girls about men. To pre-pubescent girls being raised in 2025, men are basically mystifying creatures - generally encountered fleetingly, if ever, as ‘so-and-so’s Dad’; a vaguely grumpy and unsympathetic presence who turns up to bring an end to play time with friends or to give them a lift from A to B. Male primary school teachers are becoming vanishingly rare -...

Britain’s Labour government is in trouble: Its program of massive third-world immigration from places like Pakistan and Somalia is wildly, overwhelmingly unpopular. But that’s not the real problem. The real problem is that despite the best efforts of Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his leftist captive media, Britons themselves have discovered just how unpopular it is. You might think that’s absurd — if mass immigration is unpopular, how can everyone not know it? Everyone doesn’t know it because the government has been policing speech about immigration. Any criticism of open borders, lax enforcement or — worst of all — immigrant...

Pakistani child rapist gang kidnapped and r*ped 8 girls aged 11 and 15. The gang gave the girls heroin and crack and made them addicted. The girls were forced into prostitution and sold for £600. One of the girls who was severely tortured committed suicide. This happened in Oxford UK.

Keir Starmer was accused of 'gaslighting the British public' after he made 'grossly exaggerated' claims over the Government's new migrant deal yesterday. Labour announced it had detained the first small boat migrants under its 'one in, one out' returns treaty with France. But despite the narrow scope of the pilot scheme and the likelihood of long-running legal challenges, the Prime Minister took to social media to claim: 'If you break the law to enter this country, you will face being sent back.' Writing on X, he added: 'No gimmicks, just results.' Home Secretary Yvette Cooper also appeared to overstate the...

Fans will be given a chance to pay their respects to heavy metal legend Ozzy Osbourne when his cortege travels through his home city of Birmingham. The Black Sabbath singer's body will be brought back for a procession that will travel along Broad Street in the city centre from 13:00 BST on Wednesday. The news was revealed by BBC WM presenter Ed James who said a hearse will make its way to the Black Sabbath Bridge and bench where thousands of fans have left messages and floral tributes. The Lord Mayor of Birmingham Zafar Iqbal said: "We're going to pay...

Four decades ago I was sitting having a cup of tea in Bramerton Street in Chelsea, just off the King's Road. It was the home of Alan Jay Lerner, author of Brigadoon, Paint Your Wagon, My Fair Lady, Gigi, Camelot, and much else. Alan was not as wealthy as he'd been two decades earlier, because he'd carelessly acquired seven ex-wives and was in the umpteenth year of a long-running dispute with the IRS. But I couldn't understand why, as a man awash in Oscars and Tonys and whatnot, he chose to live not in New York but in London, when...

An RAF signals intelligence aircraft has been deployed over the Black Sea to monitor the movements of the Russian military across the region. The operation, conducted under the watchful eye of NATO and Russian air defence units, comes as the war in Ukraine shows no signs of abating in the near future. The plane being used is an RC-135W Rivet Joint, a modified Boeing aircraft, considered to be one of the most technologically sophisticated in the world. Equipped with an array of sensors, its sensors ‘soak up’ electronic emissions from communications, radar and other systems to build a picture of...

A brief scuffle broke out at London's Royal Opera House after a performer unfurled a Palestinian flag during a show. The incident took place during a performance of Il Trovatore on Saturday. During the final night of the 11-night run of the show, a performer held up the flag on stage. In video footage, shared online, someone backstage could be seen attempting to take it off the performer. The performer grabs it back following a brief scuffle. A spokesperson for the Royal Ballet and Opera said: "The display of the flag was an unauthorised action by the artist. "It was...

800 pages, thousands of entries, and almost a million words. The Domesday Book, England's earliest surviving public record. Amidst a grave crisis, William the Conqueror embarked on an extraordinary bureaucratic endeavor: the Domesday Book. Dr Stephen Baxter uncovers the immense scale of the 1086 survey, detailing who owned what across England down to the last pig. But why did William do it and what did it mean for the kingdom that he had just conquered? The Intriguing Mystery Of William The Conqueror's Domesday Book | 51:49 Chronicle - Medieval History Documentaries | 811K subscribers | 9,669 views | July 19,...

It was in Victorian times that the public were first given the right to enter and enjoy large green spaces for free as urban areas quickly grew in size. But while they have always been intended as pleasant spaces for the benefit of all, some parks are becoming hotspots for crimes from rape to murder and robbery. Knife attacks, thefts and sexual assaults have also been reported alongside a trend of anti-social behaviour that police and councils are trying to fight back against.

Angela Rayner accused Labour’s political opponents of “running scared” of young people as she pledged that 16-year-olds would be able to vote at the next election. The deputy prime minister argued that lowering the voting age will get “democracy back on track” and give frustrated young people “a stake in our country’s future”. Ministers are promising more “democratic education in schools” to encourage young people to turn out.

Shotgun pellets and bullets that contain lead are to be banned for almost all uses, ministers have said, in a long-awaited announcement welcomed by wildlife groups. < snip > The change to the law, announced by the environment minister Emma Hardy, will outlaw shotgun pellets containing more than 1% lead, and bullets that have more than 3%.

Even in green energy subsidised Britain, developing renewables does not make economic sense. Why wind farm developers are pulling out at the last minute.. The government aims to generate at least 43GW of offshore wind power (current capacity is 14.7GW) and 95% of all energy from renewable sources by 2030. These targets are now in jeopardy. The cancellation of Hornsea 4 follows a similar decision by Swedish developer Vattenfall, which stopped work on its 1.4GW Norfolk Boreas wind farm in 2023. … Building a wind turbine requires significant amounts of steel, copper and aluminium, all of which doubled or tripled...

Journalist Stewart Purvis, who covered the Falklands conflict in 1982, tells the inside story of one of Margaret Thatcher's most unusual operations to recover the Falklands from occupying Argentinian forces - 'Project Moonshine'.

Britain’s move to a Net Zero economy will cost taxpayers more than £800 billion over the next two decades, the OBR – the UK’s fiscal watchdog – has said. But even this is based on implausibly generous assumptions, say critics. ... The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said Government plans to limit climate change will cost the public purse £30 billion every year until at least 2051, as tax revenue from the sale of petrol and diesel fuel dries up. This includes nearly £9.9 billion of spending every year on tech investments – for example updating the electricity grid –...

Britain's largest misinformation monitor and "fact-checker" went into bankruptcy, according to a report in the Times of London last week. In the U.S., left-wing groups like NewsGuard and GDI have come under fierce criticism as de facto tools for censorship. Logically, founded in 2016 by Cambridge engineering graduate Lyric Jain, aimed to combat "harmful and manipulative content" following high-profile events like the Brexit referendum and the U.S. presidential election. A pivotal misstep was its decision to work with India's Karnataka state government's fact-checking unit, a move criticized by the Editors Guild of India and others for potentially enabling state censorship...

Glancing upwards only to spot a drone hovering over their gardens last week was the last straw for residents of Welford Place SW19, whose homes overlook the much lauded All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC). While the eye in the sky probably belongs to an accredited broadcaster scouting out local colour ahead of the annual championships, the intrusion felt all too typical of the approach that the Wimbledon high command itself takes to its near neighbours. The annual championships may charm a world audience with its cultivated celebration of grass court tennis, strawberries and a nostalgic evocation of English fair...

Britain is on course to becoming a 'second tier' European nation like Spain or Italy due to economic decline and a weak military that undermines its usefulness to allies, an expert has warned. Research professor Dr Azeem Ibrahim OBE concluded in a damning new report that the U.K. has been paralysed by low investment, high tax and misguided policies that could see it lose its standing as a top-tier middle power at current growth rates. The stark assessment weighed that successive government failures in regulation and attracting investment had caused Britain to miss out on the 'industries of the future'...