Free Republic

Scotland’s new “hate crime” law already is demonstrating how it will be used to squash dissent and free speech. The so-called Hate Crime and Public Order Act, which went into force in Scotland on April Fools’ Day, adds age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, and transgender identity to a list of protected classes. The law provides for various potential punishments, including jail time. The new law has been fiercely criticized by author J.K. Rowling, creator of the “Harry Potter” series, and many others who rightly see it as an attack on the freedom of speech. Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf said...

Sometimes, it’s helpful to receive the occasional reminder that incompetent politicians and toxic identity politics are not the sole purview of the United States. As it happens, our allies across the pond are just as capable of stoking pointless factionalism among minorities and white residents as our own homegrown politicians. The politician providing us this example today is British far-left Parliamentary candidate George Galloway, whose different letters sent to his Muslim and Caucasian constituents are going viral for all the wrong reasons. As seen in this post on the social media platform X, which already garnered 2.3 million views, Galloway...

The recent election of George Galloway in the UK is another chapter in the career of this fascinating politician, famous the world over for appealing to Muslim voters wherever he goes.

Humza Yousaf, the left-separatist First Minister of Scotland, is taking a vacation in Qatar, the Gulf dictatorship that hosts the most senior leaders of the Hamas terror organization. Whether Yousaf, roughly equivalent to a U.S. state governor, intends to meet with the Qatari or Hamas leadership is unclear, but he has previously been reprimanded for holding unauthorized talks on the Israel-Hamas war with the President of Turkey. He has previously argued a peace deal should be brokered through the Qataris. While his official stance on Hamas is that their terror raid on October 7th was an “atrocity,” he vowed the...

Seventy-one years ago, a schoolboy in Scotland was digging up potatoes as a punishment when he discovered an ancient Egyptian statue...Between 1952 and 1984, several antique statues were found on the grounds of Melville House... Teachers and pupils brought each new discovery to museum curators and experts, who identified the statues as ancient Egyptian artifacts, but no one could figure out how they had ended up there...The ancient collection includes a nearly 4,000-year-old statue head carved out of red sandstone, which Maitland described as a "masterpiece of Egyptian sculpture," as well as several bronze and ceramic figurines dating to between...

A 2000-year-old ancient Roman road was unearthed in Old Inn Cottage's garden near Stirling, Scotland. The site is located a few miles away from Stirling’s city center, next to the Old Stirling Bridge.It has been described as the most important road in Scottish history, the cobbled road was built by the Roman armies of General Julius Agricola in the 1st century AD and would have connected to a ford that crossed the River Forth.The road and the crossing would have been used again by the Romans in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD as units launched fresh invasions of Scotland...

For thousands of years, our ancestors found solace in the winter solstice. Today, that belief is still reflected in the astonishing sight of the sun setting on Orkney's Maeshowe tomb. Located 10 miles off Scotland's north-eastern coast, the Orkney islands are a treasure trove of history, from the famous Neolithic village Skara Brae to the hauntingly beautiful Ring of Brodgar – a spellbinding stone circle that was a site of ritual and ceremony. However, when I visited another of Orkney's famous prehistoric sites, the Maeshowe tomb, my first impression was of an unremarkable green mound surrounded by a ditch. Despite...

Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf has sparked a diplomatic row by holding an unauthorized meeting with the Turkish president. Yousaf, roughly equivalent to a U.S. state governor, is a Pakistani-heritage Muslim. He has been pushing the British government to back an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and import thousands of Gazan refugees. Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan, nominally a NATO ally, also backs a ceasefire. He has branded the West's support for Israel against Hamas "barbaric". By discussing a ceasefire with Erdogan at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28), Yousaf breached diplomatic protocol. Foreign policy and defense are reserved to the...

A team of archaeologists, co-led by a researcher at the University of Southampton, believe they have located the site of the lost Monastery of Deer in Northeast Scotland.It is believed that the earliest written Scots Gaelic in the world was produced in the monastery in the late 11th and early 12th century. These texts, Gaelic land grants, were placed in the margins of the Book of Deer, a pocket gospel book originally written between 850AD and 1000AD.Academics have long speculated that these entries, or 'addenda' were added while the book was in the monastery. Archaeologists believe they have now found...

It may be the most bizarre claim about the Loch Ness monster yet – that she is an ‘algae-based creature’. That is the conclusion filmmakers have come to after using an innovative testing method following a sighting during the biggest hunt for Nessie in 50 years. On the August bank holiday, hundreds of volunteers descended on the loch to help track down the elusive beast once and for all. Among that number were Matty Wiles, 49 and Aga Balinska, 42. Before the official search kicked off, the pair went for an early morning swim at 6.30am, and saw two humps...

Headlines were made in 1864 when a group of excavators uncovered evidence of an "ancient British city" near modern-day Edinburgh Airport...Subsequent excavations in the 20th century found that the Craigie Hill site was not actually an "ancient British city" as claimed by the 1864 headlines, but the remains of a Bronze Age hillfort, similar to others that were once ubiquitous in the Lothians...The area around Edinburgh Airport is famous for its prehistoric settlements. In 1830, archaeologists uncovered the remains of a stone circle called the Huly Hill Cairn, which today stands preserved as a peculiar oddity given its proximity to...

Carn Glas, near Inverness, is thought to date to the Neolithic period and be about 5,000 years old.It is Scotland's longest chambered cairn, measuring 116m (380ft) in length.Bones were removed from the site on Essich Moor by antiquarians in 1918, according to Historic Environment Scotland (HES).The new photographs include images in false colours that clearly show the shape of Carn Glas...HES describes Carn Glas as having significant archaeological importance due to its potential for improving understanding of Neolithic rituals and funeral practices.It comprises three interlinked cairns.Other sites from the same period in history are close by, and include a stone...

In the ever-expanding realm of self-proclaimed Christian leaders, few figures are as bewildering as Katie Souza. Armed with dubious teachings that dance on the fringes of Christian orthodoxy, she recently added to her repertoire of controversy by prophesying about none other than the Loch Ness Monster. While the Bible instructs us to “test the spirits” (1 John 4:1) and to hold fast to sound doctrine (2 Timothy 4:3), Souza has ventured completely into sensationalism while diverting attention away from the true Gospel message. During her “prophetic message,” Souza claims that she was taken by God out into the ocean to...

The general lack of sources about the Picts and their way of life has led to numerous assumptions over the centuries. In the eighth century, during the early medieval period, for example, historians such as the Venerable Bede thought that the Picts emigrated from areas around the Aegean Sea or Eastern Europe and that they traced descent matrilineally, through the mother's side...In the newly published study, an international team of researchers extracted genetic information from eight human skeletons buried in two Pictish cemeteries — seven from Lundin Links and one from Balintore in modern-day Scotland...The team was able to extract...

A HOLIDAYMAKER is said to have captured the most exciting pictures to date of a monster in Loch Ness. But Chie Kelly kept the remarkable images to herself for five years because she was too afraid of being ridiculed. I FOUND NESSIE! I captured most exciting picture of Loch Ness Monster to date but kept it secret for years over fears of being ridiculed A HOLIDAYMAKER is said to have captured the most exciting pictures to date of a monster in Loch Ness. But Chie Kelly kept the remarkable images to herself for five years because she was too afraid...

Mystery hunters converged on a Scottish lake on Saturday to look for signs of the mythical Loch Ness Monster. The Loch Ness Center said researchers would try to seek evidence of Nessie using thermal-imaging drones, infrared cameras and a hydrophone to detect underwater sounds in the lake’s murky waters. The two-day event is being billed as the biggest survey of the lake in 50 years, and includes volunteers scanning the water from boats and the lakeshore, with others around the world joining in with webcams. Alan McKenna of the Loch Ness Center said the aim was "to inspire a new...

Monster hunters have convened in the Scottish Highlands of the United Kingdom this weekend for a significant endeavor—the pursuit of the perpetually mysterious Loch Ness Monster. This marks the most extensive quest for the fabled creature in over half a century. Beneath the glistening surface of Loch Ness, there is said to reside Nessie, a mythical sea creature with a storied history of nearly 1,500 years. On the upcoming Saturday and Sunday (the 26th and 27th of August 2023), individuals passionate about monster investigations and those intrigued by Nessie’s legend are aiming to provide substantiation. The organizers, namely the Loch...

...The bottlenose dolphin is thought to have washed up on an ancient shoreline after the last Ice Age.Archaeologists have described the prehistoric discovery in Causewayhead, Stirling, as "the find of a lifetime".The father-of-four said he recognised the dolphin's skull by its long snout, rows of teeth and unmistakable shape.The bones were preserved in clay, around 80cm below the current ground level, for what is thought to have been up to 8,000 years.With them was a broken tool made from deer antler, which would have been used to carve the meat.It is thought the dolphin was made into a meal by...

Findings offer important implications for areas of research such as healing wounds and depression Jo Cameron, 75, made headlines in 2019 when scientists announced that mutations in a previously unknown gene made her feel no pain, stress or fear. PA Soraya Ebrahimi author image May 23, 2023 Experts from University College London have discovered a rare genetic mutation that has allowed a woman to live her life almost pain-free and never feeling anxious or afraid. Scientists have found that mutations in the Faah-Out gene work at the molecular level enabling Jo Cameron, from Scotland, to not experience pain. The same...

Nearly 300 silver coins believed to be more than 1,000 years old have been discovered near a Viking fortress site in north-west Denmark, a museum has said.The trove – lying in two spots not far apart – was unearthed by a girl who was metal-detecting in a cornfield last autumn."A hoard like this is very rare," Lars Christian Norbach, the director of the North Jutland Museum, where the artefacts will go on display, told Agence France-Presse.The silver coins were found about 5 miles (8km) from the Fyrkat Viking ringfort, near the town of Hobro. From their inscriptions, they are believed...