Free Republic

On Thursday afternoon, in a back room of Parliament, history was made. A few MPs found themselves a backbone; they found a way in which they could exercise their Freedom of Speech and perform their ancient duty, drawn from the Bill of Rights 1688, of redressing the grievances of the citizens who rely on them. They were warned first to ‘be careful’: I remind Members of the importance of privilege, which we have here in Westminster Hall as in other parts of Parliament, but Members should always exercise their rights with care, particularly when naming individuals, and should avoid intrusion...

Get yourself a chair and a stiff whiskey. You'll need it. Go to the link, click on "listen again" at the top right. Then run the cursor forward just less than 2 hours and 10 minutes (it's a 3 hour program starting at 6am).

Kojo Annan, son of Kofi Annan, United Nations secretary-general, received at least $300,000 from Cotecna, a Swiss inspection company awarded a contract ultimately worth about $60m under the Iraqi oil-for-food contract. The amount was almost double the sum previously disclosed, but payments were arranged in ways that obscured where the money came from or whom it went to. The discovery, in a joint investigation by Il Sole 24 Ore, the Italian business daily, and the Financial Times, comes as the independent UN inquiry led by Paul Volcker into possible abuses within the oil-for-food programme prepares to publish a new report...

Brokerage firm Willis Owen has unveiled plans to launch a 'vice' fund dedicated to putting money in companies shunned by ethical investment campaigners. It will focus in particular on "high dependency" stocks - shares in firms such as betting shops, and alcohol and tobacco manufacturers - which hold up well during recessions, and prosper during boom times. Willis Owen said backing such companies can yield good returns for individuals whose consciences are not troubled by their investment decisions. "It may not be politically correct, but we all know that sex, drugs and rock-and-roll sells," said Willis Owen managing director Richard...

I suppose the day that changed my life was the day I had a letter from the foundation of one Edward S Harkness, an American tycoon who had given his fortune over to good works, mostly medical research. Shortly after the First World War he noticed that a whole generation of young Americans were going off to study at European universities. Now Mr Harkness knew, as perhaps few of his kind did, that America too had universities that were leaders in particular fields. He therefore invented a reverse fellowship - 25 fellowships - to be awarded to graduate students of...

Spike Milligan dies (Filed: 27/02/2002) AUTHOR and comedian Spike Milligan has died aged 83 at his Sussex home, his agent announced today.  Goons: (clockwise from left) Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers and Harry SecombeThe last of the Goons died early today at his home near Rye, East Sussex, surrounded by his family. Milligan had suffered ill health for some time and had been nursed by his third wife Shelagh in recent months. He died of liver failure. The Prince of Wales, once famously described by the comic as a "little grovelling bastard", was "deeply saddened to hear the news". St James's ...

"I'M AFRAID there isn't much scientific controversy about Mr Lomborg. He occupies a very junior position in Denmark (an 'associate professor' does not exactly mean the same thing that it does in the United States), he has one possibly very flawed paper in an international journal on game theory, no publications on environmental issues, and yet manages to dismiss the science of dozens of the world's best scientists, including Nobel laureates, Japan and Crawford prize-winners and the like. As any sensible person would expect, his facts are usually fallacies and his analysis is largely non-existent. Those contemptuous words from Stuart ...

IF Gary Condit didn't kill Chandra Levy, he's the unluckiest adulterer in Washington. Until April, he was just another horny congressman, cheerfully nailing - as with many, if not most, of his colleagues - one of the town's vast herd of obliging interns. Gary Condit: has had at least seven other mistresses Not his own intern, perish the thought, but some other fellow's: after all, three years ago, when President Clinton ran into a little difficulty intern-wise, Congressman Condit was one of the few Democrats to vote for the impeachment inquiry, so it was important for him to set an ...

Four years of political warfare were signalled by Jesse Jackson when he exclaimed: “We will take to the streets right now. We will delegitimise Bush, discredit him, do whatever it takes, but never accept him,” even threatening a “civil rights explosion”. Jackson tried to justify his threat against Bush by saying: “I hope today that this court will rule ‘let the vote count.’ The only way you can determine a legitimate winner is for the votes to count.” This statement exposes Jackson as a liar. First, every vote has been counted; second, he supported Gore’s efforts to literally disenfranchise service ...

People in Taipei have been gripped by an unfolding saga at the city's zoo, as two king penguins have been hatching a new egg. Outside Taipei Zoo this week, people queued to see the penguins even before the gates had opened, and the underground railway line serving the zoo was full to capacity. The zoo's director estimated that almost 1.5 million visitors had filed past the egg that the king penguins have been incubating in the past few weeks. Their progress has been followed live by Taiwan's television stations, creating something of a soap opera. People in Taiwan seem attracted ...

The Tipper kiss was great, but just a kiss By Mark Steyn I don't know which focus group we have to thank for it, but with hindsight The Kiss was the masterstroke of last week's Democratic Convention. Al locked lips on Tipper and, in that instant, told the American people everything his speech couldn't. Read his lips: No new interns. Tipper played her part, too. In that long and deep and (at least by comparison with the last eight years) very real lip-lock, it was almost as if she was hoping through sheer passion to transform the frog into a ...