Free Republic

This dissolution signals the conclusion of all parliamentary activities in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords while rendering every seat in the Commons vacant until after the general election on July 4.

An American professor and writer has said that Donald Trump’s “brain is rotting in front of us”, and claimed that to compare him to Joe Biden is “dangerous and wrong”. Sarah Churchwell, an American culture specialist and the author of a book examining division in the US, The Wrath to Come, was appearing on a panel at Hay Festival chaired by The Independent’s chief book critic Martin Chilton. They were joined by political podcaster David Runciman and We Need to Talk About Kevin author Lionel Shriver. Shriver claimed that, ahead of the US election on 5 November, she finds herself...

A child is in a serious condition and three adults are in hospital after a shooting Wednesday near a restaurant in north-east London. The BBC reports police were called to Kingsland High Street, in Dalston in Hackney, at about 21:20 BST after reports of gunshots. Officers, including firearms specialists, and the London ambulance service attended the scene, the Metropolitan Police said. The four victims were found with gunshot injuries and were taken to hospital in east London, the Met added.

British rock guitar legend Eric Clapton moved one step closer to Roger Waters territory last week, telling an interviewer that “Israel is running the world, Israel is running the show.” The 79-year-old musician, who has recently performed playing a guitar painted in the colors of the Palestinian flag, was interviewed on May 22 by David Spuria, an American Youtuber who hosts the popular Real Music Observer show. alking about the recent campus protests in the US against Israel, Clapton criticized the Senate hearings in which university presidents were asked about antisemitism on campus. “I was so enthused about what was...

Television host Piers Morgan backed a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war Monday morning, saying in a string of social media posts that a recent Israeli strike in a Rafah “safe zone” that killed more than 40 people was too far. “The scenes from Rafah overnight are horrific,” Morgan wrote on the social platform X. “I’ve defended Israel’s right to defend itself after Oct 7, but slaughtering so many innocent people as they cower in a refugee camp is indefensible.”

~As you know, two weeks from today my suit against the media censor Ofcom comes to the High Court of England. I shall be landing at Heathrow just as the UK election campaign kicks into what commentators insist will be "high gear". And yet I can muster zero interest in its outcome now that Nigel Farage has - for the second time - whiffed his rendezvous with destiny. Cometh the hour, cometh Nigel's absurd contention that he's unfortunately needed in America to get Trump across the finish line. Patrick O'Flynn, a favourite Steyn Show guest from the GB News days,...

BERLIN—The Biden administration is pressing European allies to back off plans to rebuke Iran for advances in its nuclear program as it seeks to keep tensions with Tehran from escalating before the autumn’s U.S. presidential election, according to diplomats involved in discussions. The U.S. is arguing against an effort by Britain and France to censure Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agency’s member state board in early June, the diplomats said. The U.S. has pressed a number of other countries to abstain in a censure vote, saying that is what Washington will do, they said. U.S. officials deny lobbying against...

Nigel Farage has argued on Sky News that a "growing number" of young Muslims in the UK do not subscribe to British values. The Reform UK honorary president told Sky News's Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: "We have a growing number of young people in this country who do not subscribe to British values. "In fact, loathe much of what we stand for. I think we see them on the streets of London every Saturday." Asked if "we are talking about Muslims here", Mr Farage said: "We are. And I'm afraid I found some of the recent surveys saying that...

Rishi Sunak has said he will introduce a new form of mandatory National Service for young people if the Conservatives win the general election. In the first new policy announcement of the campaign, the prime minister has unveiled a plan that would see 18-year-olds given the choice of a full-time military placement for 12 months or a scheme to volunteer for one weekend a month for a year. The placement would be selective - with tests used to decide who is eligible - and involve working with the armed forces or in cyber defence. The volunteering option would see young...

Jeremy Corbyn, the former leader of Britain's Labour Party, said on Friday he would stand as an independent candidate at the upcoming national election on July 4, Reuters reported. "I want our political parties to be democratic, but members of Islington North Labour have been denied the right to choose a candidate," Corbyn said in a video announcing his plan. "So we have to stand up. We have to stand up and say, we're not taking this anymore. We will assert our rights. That's why I'm standing to be an independent candidate for the people of Islington North," he added....

In several German states including Hesse, Baden-Württemberg, and Hamburg, around three-quarters of benefit claimants are either first- or second-generation migrants, suggesting that mass immigration of low-skilled workers is not a net benefit to Europe's largest economy.. Nearly two-thirds of German residents receiving unemployment benefits have a migration background, new figures from the Federal Employment Agency have revealed. The statistics published by the federal agency and cited by the Die Welt broadsheet showed that 63.1 percent of those in receipt of the so-called citizen’s income, or “Bürgergeld,” are of migrant origin, and “most do not have a German passport.” The German...

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is shortly expected to call a snap general election for July 4, sources say, with his Conservative party facing an uphill struggle to extend its 14 years in power. Sunak was required to hold a vote by January 2025, and had long resisted calls to be specific about his plans. But a fall in inflation rates, announced on Wednesday, provided the backdrop for the announcement, due to be made outside Downing Street. The decision will fire the starting gun on a six-week campaign that, currently, is almost universally expected to conclude in the demise of...

@AFP #BREAKING UK general election to be held on July 4: media, quoting sources

A Tory rebel source tells the BBC that some letters calling for a no confidence vote in Rishi Sunak are being submitted. The reported move came after one senior Conservative MP described the atmosphere in the tea room as “panic”. (As a reminder, 15% of Conservative MPs must submit a letter before the party holds a leadership election - that would mean 52 letters are needed).

The number of people using Gaelic has increased across Scotland despite a decline in the language's heartland, according to the latest census data. Experts say the increase in Gaelic medium education (GME) accounts for the rise. However, Gaelic is now a minority language in the Western Isles - while 52% reported speaking Gaelic in 2011, the figure in 2022 was 45%. Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes told BBC Scotland that Scottish Gaelic was part of a "modern, diverse Scotland". Ms Forbes – who is also minister for Gaelic – said she was “extremely optimistic” about the future of the language....

There is undoubtedly a backlash against LGBT ideology unfolding in many Western countries, the source of which includes many ambivalent towards LGBT lifestyles but who are still uncomfortable teaching the ideology to children. (LifeSiteNews) — In March, podcaster Joe Rogan paid tribute to his favourite teacher. His seventh-grade science teacher, he noted, “was a brilliant man and he taught me about wonder. I think about that guy all the time.” But now, Rogan said, teachers are frequently fixating on issues of sex and gender. “I don’t want that gang of morons teaching my children about biological sex or gender,” Rogan...

~As you know, in three weeks' time my suit against the UK media censor Ofcom comes to the High Court of England: The King on the application of Mark Steyn vs The Office of Communications I'll be there. Not sure if the King will. Day on day, Ofcom's enforcement of the Covid-vaccine narrative looks increasingly not only preposterous but blood-soaked. Yet, in the so-called controlled demolition of the entire western world, it's the small things that get you. Just about the only reason I was looking forward to my court date was that, after a month in the dank septic...

Jeremy Hunt will approve final compensation for the victims of the contaminated blood scandal this week after a Sunday Times campaign for justice was backed across the political divide. The chancellor is preparing to unveil a package worth at least £10 billion ($12 billion) for those affected by the deadliest man-made disaster in postwar Britain. Tens of thousands of people were treated with disease-ridden blood products from the United States in the 1970s and 80s. The prime minister is expected to make an official apology on Monday, acknowledging the failings of the state and the suffering caused, following the publication...

A secret report has emerged from the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that exposes the shocking impact of Covid mRNA injections on American children and young adults. The bombshell report shows that a staggering half a million American children and young adults have been killed by Covid shots. The CDC report has revealed that almost 500,000 Americans aged between 0 and 44 years old died from the dangerous side effects of the Covid mRNA injections. The recorded deaths occurred between the start of the public rollout of the shots in early 2021 and October 9, 2022. However,...

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher reacted to the United Kingdom and Scandinavian nations walking back transitioning children by saying that America has tried to be so progressive, it’s actually behind the rest of the world and that the American medical establishment won’t make the same corrections other nations have because “They’re afraid.” Maher stated, “Let me add one more thing to our discussion there about rolling back some of the overexcesses in 2020…this is in the U.K., they are now pronouncing the United States as way behind. This is so, to me, symbolic of so...