Free Republic

Former prime minister Boris Johnson has said it is "shameful" to call for the UK to end arms sales to Israel. Three Britons were among seven aid workers killed in air strikes in Gaza carried out by Israel's army on Monday. It has led the Lib Dems, SNP and some Labour and Conservative MPs to urge the UK to reassess how it supports Israel. The Foreign Office said on Thursday it kept advice on Israel's adherence to the law under review, adding that this was confidential. Writing in his Daily Mail column, Mr Johnson said it would be "insane" for...

J.K. Rowling won a significant victory over Scotland’s new speech restrictions after daring the police to arrest her over comments criticising transgender ideology, as Police Scotland said they would not take criminal actions against the Harry Potter author after activists reported her statements to law enforcement. Successfully calling the bluff of the leftist government of First Minister Humza Yousaf, J.K. Rowling struck a stinging blow against the oppressive Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act, after she goaded the police to arrest her as the bill came into law on Monday for insisting that transgender “women” are in reality still...

Scotland's first minister, Humza Yousaf, has called for the UK to accept Palestinian refugees in the same way as was done for Ukraine following Russia's invasion. The SNP leader addressed the current conflict in the Middle East - to which he has a personal connection. His wife, Nadia El-Nakla, has been trying to get her parents out of Gaza following the outbreak of the current Israel-Hamas war. .....

Humza Yousaf has been elected as the leader of the Scottish National Party and is set to become the first Muslim and Asian to occupy the highest position. The 37-year-old emerged as the new first minister triumphing over his rivals Kate Forbes and Ash Regan to replace Nicola Sturgeon. Sky News reported Monday that Yousaf, the Cabinet Health Minister emerged following a boisterous campaign that exposed deep divisions in the party that has dominated Scottish politics under his predecessor.

LONDON, Nov 23 (Reuters) - The United Kingdom's top court ruled on Wednesday that the Scottish government cannot hold a second referendum on independence without approval from the British parliament, dealing a hammer blow to nationalists' hopes of holding a vote next year. In 2014, Scots rejected ending the more-than 300-year-old union with England by 55% to 45%, but independence campaigners have argued the vote two years later for Britain to leave the European Union, which the majority of Scottish voters opposed, has materially changed the circumstances.

J.K. Rowling has in-shirt-ed herself into a new transgender controversy. The outspoken “Harry Potter” author posted a photo of herself Thursday wearing a T-shirt calling a UK politician behind a controversial gender-identity reform a “destroyer of women’s rights.” Rowling — who has faced death threats over previous comments accused of being transphobic — proudly wore the garment to “stand in solidarity” with protests before a hearing of the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill.

The Scottish government was forced to drop plans to axe jury trials today as its coronavirus bill jumped its first parliamentary hurdle. The SNP administration confirmed it had dropped the measure after an outcry from opposition parties and senior lawyers following the publication of the Coronavirus (Scotland) Bill on Tuesday. The bill originally proposed trials going ahead without juries to “ensure that criminal justice systems can continue to operate during the coronavirus restrictions”. But the move was branded “draconian” by the Scottish Criminal Bar Association and The Law Society of Scotland insisted there was not “sufficient justification” for ending the...

BORIS Johnson has appeared to have achieved the impossible by taking back Labour heartlands as early general elections polls today revealed voting intentions for the north west of England have shifted to Tory paving the way for a landslide win thanks to support from the south and the Midlands. Pollster YouGov showed Labour support is collapsing in the north, with prominent industrial counties - some of which that have voted Labour for decades - Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside now jumping ship to Tory in a spectacular show of support for the Brexiteer Prime Minister. The poll shows...

Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party is on course for a huge majority in Parliament, according to an exit poll from the UK’s three main broadcasters. The projections will be a big disappointment for Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party and suggests Johnson will be able to pass his Brexit deal comfortably. The exit poll is usually fairly accurate but a lot can still change as the night progresses and actual results begin to come through. Here’s the exact seat numbers from the exit poll, which predicts a huge Conservative win. 326 seats are needed for a majority. Conservatives: 368 Labour: 191 SNP: 55...

Northern United Kingdom latest to experience attacksScotland is the latest nation reporting vandalism against buildings and statuary in its Catholic parishes. Saint Simon's Catholic Church and cemetery in Glasgow and Holy Family Church in Mossend, North Lanarkshire were both attacked over the course of this week. The Glasgow-based Daily Record newspaper reported April 25 that vandals had defaced the bus stop in front of Holy Family with a slur against the Pope. The graffiti was discovered one month after numerous windows had been broken in the parish's primary school on March 25. Glasgow Police tweeted "significant vandalism" was committed against...

Scotland’s first minister says ‘independent nations’ wield more power in EU than Scotland does within the UK. Scotland should hold a referendum on independence before 2021 if the U.K. leaves the EU, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said. “A choice between Brexit and a future for Scotland as an independent European nation should be offered in the lifetime of this parliament," the Scottish National Party leader said. "If Scotland is taken out of the EU, a referendum within that timescale must be open to us. That would be our route to avoiding the worst of the damage that Brexit would do.”...

The Conservative Party faces electoral annihilation. According to our bombshell poll, if there were a general election tomorrow, they would get just 19 per cent of the vote – their worst result in history...They would lose 139 seats... The incredible thing is that the Conservative leadership seems oblivious... Take the 1993 election in Canada, when the centre-Right coalition of the Progressive Conservatives shattered...The PC tried to save things by changing leader, but the damage was done: on election night they collapsed from 156 seats to just two. There is a moral lesson to such stories: don’t let down the people...

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has declared a "climate emergency" in her speech to the SNP conference. The SNP leader told delegates in Edinburgh she was inspired after meeting young climate campaigners who had gone on strike from school. Ms Sturgeon said "they are right", and pledged to "live up to our responsibility" to halt climate change. She also announced what she described as the SNP's "biggest campaign on the economics of independence". Labour is expected to press the UK government to declare a national climate emergency on Wednesday.

Nicola Sturgeon is more interested in pushing for independence than she is in finding a solution to Brexit, the Scottish Conservatives have claimed. All 35 SNP MPs abstained in a Commons vote on whether there should be customs union with the EU after Brexit. Tory interim leader Jackson Carlaw said the SNP had "refused to back the very option they have been demanding" and accused Ms Sturgeon of "faux outrage". Ms Sturgeon said remaining in the EU must now be the top priority. And she said her party would continue to "stand up for Scotland's interests" by pushing for another...

A Scottish SNP MEP today urged European leaders to “leave a light on” so an independent Scotland can “find a way home” to the EU. The SNP’s Alyn Smith encouraged lawmakers in Strasbourg to support a separate Scottish state in what is likely to be his final speech in the European Parliament. “What a sad place we are in on Brexit ,” he told MEPs. “What a tragedy. So many issues we should be working on together utterly distracted by a self-inflicted disaster. “Entirely because the UK even at this last hour hasn’t made a decision on what it actually...

The Scottish parliament has just voted to stop the Brexit process by revoking article 50 unless there is an extension to allow for a second referendum on Brexit "So what?," you might say. They can't legally force the UK government to do anything. But there is something else deeply significant happening here. Read between the lines and you can see the case being made for another referendum on Scottish independence. as well as for another Brexit vote. Today's vote was proposed by the Scottish Greens. The SNP added their own amendment which "calls on the UK government to stop ignoring...

The people of the United Kingdom have exercised the sacred right of all free peoples. They have declared their independence from the European Union and have voted to reassert control over their own politics, borders and economy. A Trump Administration pledges to strengthen our ties with a free and independent Britain, deepening our bonds in commerce, culture and mutual defense. The whole world is more peaceful and stable when our two countries – and our two peoples – are united together, as they will be under a Trump Administration. Come November, the American people will have the chance to re-declare...

A majority of British voters said Thursday that the United Kingdom should leave the European Union, launching markets into turmoil as investors tried to digest what the referendum means for the U.K. and the European bloc as a whole. Although concern for the future of the EU may seem like hyperbole, nearly every member state has a political contingent in favor of leaving the union, and the successful Brexit vote may have just politically legitimized — and energized — those movements.

Scotland last night gave a resounding endorsement to the EU as the UK overall voted for Brexit, raising the prospect of a demand for a second independence referendum. ..In the early hours, Alex Salmond was.. announcing that, if Scotland voted to remain but the UK overall voted to leave, Nicola Sturgeon would “implement the SNP manifesto”. The SNP document for last month’s Scottish election states that Holyrood should have the right to hold a second independence vote if there is a “significant and material” change in circumstances from 2014, such as Scotland being taken out of the EU against its...

Scotland has voted in favour of the UK staying in the EU by 62% to 38% - with all 32 council areas backing Remain. But the UK as a whole has voted to Leave - raising the prospect of Scotland being taken out of the EU against its will.First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said Scotland had delivered a "strong, unequivocal vote" to remain in the EU. ..Ms Sturgeon's predecessor, Alex Salmond, said the result could lead to a second independence referendum. Ms Sturgeon said the vote had made clear "that the people of Scotland see their future as part of the...