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Britain is the worst country in the Western world in which to be a child, according to a recent UNICEF report. Ordinarily, I would not set much store by such a report; but in this case, I think it must be right—not because I know so much about childhood in all the other 20 countries examined but because the childhood that many British parents give to their offspring is so awful that it is hard to conceive of worse, at least on a mass scale. The two poles of contemporary British child rearing are neglect and overindulgence. Consider one British...

A gay chef murdered his lover, cut out part of his leg, seasoned it with herbs and fried it, a court has heard.Anthony Morley, 35, chewed one of the pieces before throwing it into his kitchen bin. Morley, a former holder of the Mr Gay UK title, then walked to a nearby takeaway restaurant and told horrified staff: 'I have killed someone, call the police'. Former Mr Gay UK Anthony Morley (l) allegedly murdered Damian Oldfield before chewing part of his thigh Officers found the naked body of 33-year-old Damian Oldfield on the floor of Morley's bedroom, Leeds Crown Court...

Here is something the Government told us would never happen. When Britain signed up to the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) six years ago, critics pointed out that an individual could be extradited to another EU state to face prosecution for something that is not a crime in Britain and had not even been committed in the requesting country. Ministers dismissed such concerns as fanciful, but it has come to pass.An Australian teacher is currently in jail in London, following his arrest at Heathrow airport by British police acting on a warrant issued by the German authorities. Gerald Töben, 64, is...

It is hard, sometimes, to remember that I don't have a vote in the US election. The media coverage is constant, my Twitter feed is full of it, and it is all that the blogs I read seem to be interested in - even the non-political ones. While Peter Mandelson is being brought into British government for the third time, the US political scene seems to dazzle with its array of new faces and new personalities. Barack Obama's inspirational idealism and John McCain's time spent as a prisoner of war make our politicians look a little grey and ordinary. And...

Ministers are considering a £12 billion plan to monitor the e-mail, telephone and internet browsing records of every person in Britain. The huge eavesdropping programme would involve the creation of a mammoth central computer database to store hundreds of billions of individual pieces of communications traffic. Supporters say it would become one of the security services' most comprehensive tools in the fight against terrorism but critics described it as "sinister". MI5 currently has to apply to the Home Secretary for warrants to intercept specific email and website traffic but, under the new plan, internet and mobile phone networks could be...

A mother has told how she was mauled by two pitbull terriers and her baby knocked to the ground in his pram. Concert pianist Mary Duella, who was left with deep wounds to her arm and leg, is due to have a skin graft and faces permanent scarring. She is also unsure if she will be able to play the piano professionally again but is determined to resume her career. The 35-year-old was walking home with her 19-month-old-son Daithi after playing at a jazz concert nearby to raise awareness for an arts cafe. She was metres away from her home...

Ministers are considering spending up to £12 billion on a database to monitor and store the internet browsing habits, e-mail and telephone records of everyone in Britain. GCHQ, the government’s eavesdropping centre, has already been given up to £1 billion to finance the first stage of the project. Hundreds of clandestine probes will be installed to monitor customers live on two of the country’s biggest internet and mobile phone providers - thought to be BT and Vodafone. BT has nearly 5m internet customers. Ministers are braced for a backlash similar to the one caused by their ID cards programme. Dominic...

The grave of the 19th Century Cardinal John Henry Newman did not contain his body, the Catholic Church has revealed.The plot, at the Oratory House, Rednal, near Birmingham, was excavated on Thursday at the Vatican's instruction. His remains were to have been moved to the Birmingham Oratory, in preparation for Newman's anticipated beatification. Newman's body may have decomposed, as his coffin was not lead-lined. Its absence will not affect the progress of his cause in Rome, a spokesman said.In a statement released on Saturday, Peter Jennings from the Fathers of the Birmingham Oratory, said: "Brass, wooden and cloth artefacts from...

The outspoken English comedian Pat Condell (official web site here) has had his latest video blocked by YouTube. You can watch it here, below the break. The most urgent message in his video is this: If you live in Britain please sign this petition against the creeping poison of sharia law before October 4th when it closes. Update: Pat Condell has had his video restored after broad support from users who protested the censorship. A new petition is online, which runs through the end of the year. If you are an UK citizen, please consider signing ShariaStop here.

“That is the safe sex message of all time. Use a condom or become a Republican!” In the light of this pig-ignorant comment coming out of Russell Brand, a so-called comedian at the recent MTV awards, some of you might be wondering if his opinion is shared by others in the UK. Considering the incredibly biased coverage of the whole election by outlets such as the BBC and the Guardian, it is no wonder I encounter such ignorance about Gov. Palin. ...

A woman was refused the "morning-after pill" by a supermarket's duty pharmacist because it was against his religious beliefs. Ruth Johnson, 33, who has two children, including a month-old baby, had not been using her usual method of contraception with her fiancée. She went to the Tesco dispensary in Hewitts Circus, Cleethorpes, Lincs, and asked an as assistant for the pill Levanelle. Miss Johnson was told it could only be dispensed by the locum pharmacist who was called to speak with her. She said: "He came out from behind a screen and told me that he would not be allowing...

Ministers are considering spending up to £12 billion on a database to monitor and store the internet browsing habits, e-mail and telephone records of everyone in Britain. GCHQ, the government’s eavesdropping centre, has already been given up to £1 billion to finance the first stage of the project. Hundreds of clandestine probes will be installed to monitor customers live on two of the country’s biggest internet and mobile phone providers - thought to be BT and Vodafone. BT has nearly 5m internet customers.

Britain's most senior military commander in Afghanistan has warned that the war against the Taliban cannot be won. Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith said the British public should not expect a “decisive military victory” but should be prepared for a possible deal with the Taliban. His assessment followed the leaking of a memo from a French diplomat who claimed that Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, the British ambassador in Kabul, had told him the current strategy was “doomed to fail”. Carleton-Smith, commander of 16 Air Assault Brigade, which has just completed its second tour of Afghanistan, said it was necessary to “lower our expectations”....

Britain's most senior military commander in Afghanistan has warned that the war against the Taliban cannot be won. Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith said the British public should not expect a “decisive military victory” but should be prepared for a possible deal with the Taliban. His assessment followed the leaking of a memo from a French diplomat who claimed that Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, the British ambassador in Kabul, had told him the current strategy was “doomed to fail”. Carleton-Smith, commander of 16 Air Assault Brigade, which has just completed its second tour of Afghanistan, said it was necessary to “lower our expectations”....

TEACHERS should NOT be prosecuted for having sex with pupils over 16, claim union bosses. The NASUWT says it is UNFAIR to treat teachers who have affairs with students who are over 16 as sex offenders, insisting all they are guilty of is an “error of professional judgement”. In 2001 it became illegal for teachers to have any intimate or sexual affair with any pupil in their school under 18. If found guilty of doing so, the teacher would face instant dismissal, be made to sign the sex offenders register and possibly face jail. But NASUWT general secretary Chris Keates...

Muslim hate fanatics plan to take over Britain by having more babies and forcing a population explosion, it has been revealed. The swollen Muslim population would be enough to conquer Britain from inside, they claim. Fanatics told a meeting of young Muslims on the anniversary of the 9/11 atrocity, that it would then be easy to impose Sharia law on the population, the Sun newspaper reported. Speaking at a meeting in London, Anjem Choudary, right-hand man of exiled preacher Omar Bakri Mohammed, said: "It may be by pure conversion that Britain will become an Islamic state. We may never need...

It was Cardinal Newman's dying wish that he be buried with his closest friend in the grounds of the house they had shared as priests. But now, nearly 120 years after his death, Britain's most famous convert to Roman Catholicism is to be reinterred in a sarcophagus in preparation for his becoming a saint, leaving the remains of his friend behind. The decision to separate the remains of John Henry Newman and Ambrose St John has upset figures in the Church and led some to question whether it is embarrassed about their relationship. They are buried in a grave in...

Southern Vietnam is hot and sticky at any time, but the humid air inside the Huong family's hut, perched on a prawn-pond dyke in the Mekong Delta, is almost unbearable. The single room is rank with chemicals: we cough and sneeze when we enter. There's an acrid dust all over the mud floor, which makes you worry for little Huong Thi Mai, a seven-year-old girl who is sitting on the bed near the door watching her parents work. King prawns Asian farmers are using an array of banned drugs to produce prawns for British consumption I glance at her bare...

Baroness Warnock, Britain’s leading expert on medical ethics and a vocal supporter of euthanasia, has said that it would be wrong to give immunity from prosecution to relatives who help terminally ill patients to die abroad. Lady Warnock, 84, who recently provoked an outcry when she said that people suffering from dementia should be allowed to end their lives for the greater good, said that unless the ban on assisted suicides was also lifted in Britain, such a move would lead to a “two-tier death service”. “It would seem to me to be a blatant abuse to say we are...

Whitminster Endowed Church of England Primary School, near Stroud, has decided not to give pupils lists of words to learn by rote as homework. Headmistress Debbie Marklove said there was a risk that children would feel a "sense of failure" if, having learned the words at home, they were unable to spell them at school the next day....

World War II tunnel digger John Fancy whose actions inspired the film the Great Escape, has died. Just nine months after the beginning of hostilities in the WWII, the young and dashing RAF observer was shot down. His Blenheim bomber had just successfully hit its target in the Ardennes when he came under heavy fire from German anti-aircraft positions on 14 May 1940. Within moments the aircraft had ditched.

The American election campaign has made life better for those of us living here and identified as non-enemies of President Bush or, even worse, one of the "neo-cons" David Cameron went all the way to Islamabad to denounce. It is not that our British friends have fallen in love with George Bush, or adopted a more tolerant attitude towards those of us who think the world might be a more dangerous place if America were to retreat into reliance on the United Nations to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. No, it is that Brits with any interest in America,...

A senior McCain adviser took the opportunity to fire a shot at Gordon Brown, who appeared in a recent article in the parliamentary magazine "Monitor" to support Mr Obama, the Democratic nominee, against Mr McCain. "Your ambassador appears to be a keen observer of the political landscape in this race," the adviser said. "We are running against a decidedly liberal machine politician with no clear principles and an abundance of ambition. Perhaps that explains Gordon Brown's endorsement." In a frank verdict on Mr Obama, Sir Nigel Sheinwald, ambassador in Washington since last year, described him as a "maybe aloof" and...

New Defence Minister John Hutton has been described as an "uber-moderniser," and brings a reputation for low-key competence to Britain's military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The following is the full text of a July 2008 letter sent by Sir Nigel Sheinwald, British ambassador to the United States, to Gordon Brown, British Prime Minister, shortly before the visit of Senator Barack Obama, then the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, to London. My news story about the leaked document is here. BARACK OBAMA This letter contains sensitive judgements. Please limit copying, and protect the contents carefully. 1. Ahead of Senator Obama’s visit to London next week, I thought it would be useful to give you a snapshot of his personality, politics and emerging policies. Background and Personality 2....

Barack Obama is a "decidedly liberal" senator "who was finding his feet, and then got diverted by his presidential ambitions", according to a frank verdict delivered to Gordon Brown by the British ambassador to the United States.

Sarah Palin has committed yet another political blunder after claiming she had held talks with a British ambassador - talks that never actually took place. In an answer to questions about her foreign policy experience ahead of tonight's make-or-break vice presidential TV debate, her aides listed numerous contacts with foreign officials - including Britain's ambassador to Washington, Sir Nigel Sheinwald. However the meeting never occurred....

YouTube has deleted Pat Condell’s latest video, for “terms of use violation.” Which apparently means, “criticism of Saudi Arabia.” So here it is again.

Thursday, 2pm - AN Iron Age coin depicting a warrior leader bearing an uncanny likeness to Grantham-born former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has been found just a few miles from her birth place. Metal detectorist David Baker was searching a muddy field near Grantham when he uncovered the 2,000-year-old silver coin. On one side was the head of a tribal leader or goddess that looked just like Margaret Thatcher. On its reverse was a celtic armed war horse - imagery associated with Lady Thatcher during her 1980s pomp. David, 40, said: "I'd gone out detecting for the day to get...

Ten reasons why it's all going to go horribly wrong By Jeff Randall Last Updated: 12:37AM BST 03 May 2006 In my first year as business editor of the BBC, 2001-02, I became known by Television Centre veterans, such as Michael Buerk and Peter Sissons, as a harbinger of gloom. Whenever I turned up at the Ten O'Clock News desk with a business update, it seemed always to presage a corporate disaster. The implosion of dot.com dreamland, the subsequent shake-out in global stock markets, revelations of some heavy-duty corruption in America and the atrocities of 9/11 led to a remarkable...

Author Sherry Jones had called on the British public to ensure that her book is published here, but Mandrake learns that the publication of The Jewel of Medina in this country has been postponed indefinitely. The book concerns one of the prophet Mohammed’s wives. Alan Jessop, the managing director of Compass, the external sales team of Jones’s publisher Gibson Square, says the publication is now in “suspended animation” after the attack on publisher Martin Rynja’s house in London. “He is in good spirits, but he is reflecting and taking advice on what the best way forward is,” says Jessop. “Everyone...

A council is urging allotment holders not to lock their sheds in case thieves damage the structures while breaking in.Tenants have been warned that padlocks can lead to thieves forcing their way through doors and windows of the council-owned sheds to steal garden equipment. Bristol City Council claims its 'Don't Use a Padlock' initiative will save taxpayers' money because fewer sheds will have to be repaired or replaced. Its guide reads: "Don't padlock your shed; it can save the shed being damaged if someone does try to get into it.....

'Fans of Oasis can listen to their new album on MySpace, ahead of its official release next week. Dig Out Your Soul is available in its entirety on the social networking website to listen to but not buy. The band's seventh studio album is being put on http://music.myspace.com/ and http://www.myspace.com/oasis .' http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Technology/Oasis-MySpace-Premiere-For-Dig-Out-Your-Soul-Album-Ahead-Of-Official-Release/Article/200810115110811?lpos=Technology_News_Your_Way_Region_8&lid=ARTICLE_15110811_Oasis%3A_MySpace_Premiere_For_Dig_Out_Your_Soul_Album_Ahead_Of_Official_Release

The debt we owe the Gurkhas Lance Corporal Ram Bahadur Limbu won his Victoria Cross in a mostly forgotten war, the Indonesian Confrontation, in Borneo in 1965. First, he charged a machine-gun nest, knocking it out with a hand grenade. Then he made two forays into open ground to rescue wounded comrades, and another to retrieve a Bren gun. He used it to charge down and kill what was left of the enemy. When I decided to look up Lance Corporal Limbu a few years ago, it was a simple matter to find him – I just went to his...

A major tidal energy project is being planned for waters off the coast of Northern Ireland and Scotland. ScottishPower has identified sites off the Antrim Coast, Pentland Firth and the Sound of Islay to test sea turbines which could power thousands of homes. They have been working on the Lanstrom device, which is said to be one of the world's most advanced tidal turbine. The sites would host up to 60 of the turbines, 20 at each site, generating power for up to 40,000 homes. The company is expected to apply for planning permission next year. The device, similar to...

A jeering crowd taunted a suicidal teenager as he threatened to jump from the top of a city-centre car park. In a shocking indictment of modern Britain, youths who gathered in the street below yelled at 17-year-old Shaun Dykes to kill himself over the course of three hours. One allegedly shouted: 'How far can you bounce?' The A-level student eventually plunged 60ft to his death after police negotiators tried in vain to talk him down. In a final sickening act, some of those responsible for the abuse outside the Westfield shopping centre in Derby rushed from behind the police cordon...

Families borrowed more than they saved in the early months of this year as the credit crisis and soaring food and oil prices squeezed their incomes, official figures have showed. The saving ratio, a measure of how much households put in their bank accounts, dropped into negative territory for the first time since 1958 - when Harold Macmillan was Prime Minister and the Soviets welcomed Sputnik back from orbit. The ratio was -1.1 per cent in the first three months of the year - the lowest level since comparable records began in 1955, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Newspaper says info includes names, school records of al-Qaida suspects. LONDON - Britain's MI6 intelligence service is investigating how a camera holding sensitive information about al-Qaida suspects came to be lost by one of its agents and then sold on eBay, police said on Tuesday. "We can confirm we seized a camera after a member of the public reported it," said a statement by police in Hertfordshire, north of London, after the camera was handed into a police station. "Intelligence services are investigating," the statement added. A 28-year-old Briton bought the Nikon Coolpix camera for 17 pounds ($31) and discovered...

Sticking point: Philip Clarkson Webb has had to use his spare stick after his other one was confiscated by police They must have known he was a troublemaker the moment they saw him. With his white hair, wax jacket and glasses, 78-year-old Philip Clarkson Webb clearly ticked all the boxes any eagle-eyed policemen would mark as 'danger'. And as he shuffled along the pavement towards them there was one thing above all they deemed to pose a threat - his walking stick. The officers surrounded the retired classics teacher and informed him the 3ft wooden cane was an 'offensive weapon'...

LONDON - Britain's MI6 intelligence service is investigating how a camera holding sensitive information about al-Qaida suspects came to be lost by one of its agents and then sold on eBay, police said on Tuesday.

It’s the “battle of the bathroom” in Britain after the University of Manchester decided to “de-gender” its students’ union toilets. Controversy erupted after signs of “ladies” were changed to “toilets”, while the “gents” were converted to “toilets with urinals”. The changes are in response to an unspecified number of complaints from trans students who are uncomfortable using the men’s toilets, reports BBC News website. A university newspaper criticised the move but the student union said it was needed to tackle transphobia. There are no figures on the number of transsexual and transgender students believed to be among the university’s population...

Those of us on the outside will ­follow every twist; it is a statement of the ­obvious that the entire world will be watching on November 4. But perhaps we shouldn't be. At least if my email inbox is anything to go by, we should have only the scantest interest in the ongoing US election. After all, it's got nothing to do with us. Or, as one emailer put it: "We are electing the President of the United States and the world can choke on it." His was one of a deluge of mainly hostile responses to a column that...

'IT has been reported that Britain's oldest veteran of the Normandy landings died on Monday aged 105. Jock Wilson, from Dunbar in East Lothian, was an observer for the 79th Regiment Royal Artillery. He made his landing at Juno Beach and took part in the subsequent savage fighting in the beachhead that ended in one of the biggest defeats for German forces in WWII. Twice wounded in the war, he received the Military Medal for his actions and was also awarded France's highest decoration – the Legion d'Honneur – by Jacques Chirac at the 60th anniversary of the D-Day landings...

THE HAGUE, 01/10/08 - The Dutch embassy in London has sponsored an Islamic festival. Other countries including the US also did so, Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen says in a letter to parliament. The Party for Freedom (PVV) wanted to know whether it was true that the Dutch embassy in London sponsored the UK Ramadan festival. The minister acknowledges that indeed 15,000 euros has been donated to the festival from the Public Diplomacy Projects budget. Verhagen has no objection to the subsidy. He rejects a PVV call to ensure that such subsidies never occur any more in future. "The request for...

BIRMINGHAM, England - Ahead in opinion polls, boosted by a run of special election victories over the governing Labour Party and newly in charge of London's City Hall, Britain's main opposition Conservatives have every reason to feel cocky. But their leader David Cameron has reined in the celebratory mood at an annual rally in the central England city of Birmingham, insisting on a sober and cautious front as his party plots its course to Downing Street.

A group of retired Gurkhas fighting for the right to settle in Britain have won their immigration test case at London's High Court. They were challenging immigration rules which said that those who retired from the British Army before 1997 did not have an automatic right to stay. The government said it would now review all Gurkhas' cases. The regiment moved its main base from Hong Kong to the UK in 1997 and the government had argued that Gurkhas discharged before that date were unlikely to have strong residential ties with the UK. The judge, Mr Justice Blake, said the...

LONDON — A second-hand camera sold on eBay by a top MI6 agent held secret records used in the fight against Al Qaeda terrorists. Names, snaps, fingerprints and suspects’ academic records were found in the memory of the digital device. Alongside them were photos of rocket launchers and missiles which spooks believe Iran is supplying to Usama Bin Laden’s henchmen in Iraq. And a hand-drawn graphic revealed links between active Al Qaeda cells — with terrorists’ names and occupations. Meanwhile a document marked "top secret" detailed the encrypted computer system used by real-life James Bonds working away from MI6’s London...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The U.S. dollar rose against other major currencies Monday as turmoil in the European economy undercut the euro and the pound. The 15-nation currency fell to $1.4468 in New York, down from $1.4615 on Friday. The British pound was quoted at $1.8160, down from $1.8417. And the Japanese yen fell to ¥104.43 from ¥106.14. The dollar's strength comes as the crisis on Wall Street appears to be spreading to the European financial system.

US allies will press Congress to urgently pass a huge bailout package for the financial system as failure to do so would hurt the US and world economies, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said. Rudd said he had spoken to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown overnight and they had agreed to urge US lawmakers to reverse their decision to reject the US$700 billion (HK$5.46 trillion) package, saying that had been "a bad development''. "The attitude that we will adopt, and I believe other friends and allies of the United States will adopt, is to urge the United States Congress to...

On Now, said Paulson Plan is a joke. Says that World Banks should instead go for either Zero or near Zero Interest Rates. Time for World Banks to Operate togeather, no need for bailout. Consensus, Buying assets of banks that are worth 0-10% of their face value for 65% of the face value is a bad deal for American Tax Payers. There wasn't that much push-back to him, just that the rest of the team kept saying Paulson this, Paulson that. The Brit Responded, do you really trust this guy? He didn't see this coming, why should we believe what...