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I am going to be taking a vacation with a few friends to London and Bristol, England, before the election and I wanted to get some Freeper ideas on where to eat and what to see. I was intially very worried about travelling abroad before the election, but then I realized- that's what the terrorists want! So forget them- I am going to drop some tourist dollars on our faithful British friends! I have never been out of this country so I am a little bit freaked, so I thought I'd ask for some input from other well traveled and/or...

I have created a public register of "bump lists" here on Free Republic. I define a bump list as a name listed in the "To" field used to index articles. Free Republic Bump List Register

LONDON – When is a spanking more than a spanking? When does parental discipline cross the line from an occasional spank to keep an unruly child in order to a beating? The great parenting debate is now a great federal government debate here. As a new children's bill makes its way through Parliament, ministers and officials are debating whether all forms of corporal punishment - even by parents - should be banned. The government has taken state interference in personal behavior to a new level; it now seems to distrust parents so much that it thinks they can't distinguish between...

Britain shamed by NHS death rates Waiting lists and shortage of doctors blamed for grim mortality figures Jo Revill, health editorSunday September 7, 2003The Observer Patients who have major surgery in Britain are four times more likely to die than those in America, according to a major new study. The comparison of care, which reveals a sevenfold difference in mortality rates in one set of patients, concludes that hospital waiting lists, a shortage of specialists and competition for intensive care beds are to blame. Fresh evidence of a stark contrast between the fate of patients on either side of the...

The Reuters news group and one of its US subsidiaries is being sued for racial discrimination over allegations that a "white, public school attitude" tolerated and encouraged a racist environment in which black employees were abused and persecuted. The class action announced yesterday alleges that black employees at Radianz ­ a US-based internet services subsidiary of Reuters ­ were forced to work in "an outrageous, patently offensive environment". One black employee was repeatedly referred to as "my nigger" by a white supervisor and was sent racially offensive emails, the action alleges. "It's astounding," said Douglas Wigdor, one of the lawyers...

The BBC says it has a tape recording of David Kelly voicing serious concerns over the role of Downing Street in the disputed Iraq dossier. The corporation is planning to submit the tape as evidence during the inquiry into the death of the weapons expert. Susan Watts, the science editor of Newsnight, recorded her conversations with Dr Kelly, parts of which were later broadcast anonymously as a "source", using the voice of an actor. The report, which was broadcast on 2 June, suggested Downing Street had been "desperate" to find information to justify its stance on a war against Iraq....

Britain to Allow Transsexuals to Marry By Michael Holden LONDON (Reuters) - Britain unveiled plans for a new law on Friday which would allow transsexuals to marry under their adopted sex, ending a long dispute over their legal status. The proposals were given a cautious welcome by campaigners who have been fighting on behalf of Britain's 5,000 transsexuals for over 30 years for a change in the law. However some church groups said they would undermine conventional relationships and family life. "The draft bill will ensure that transsexual people can take up all their fundamental rights including the right to...

Compulsory sex education for five-year-olds will be demanded today by government advisers on teenage pregnancy, as an essential step towards halving the under-18 concep tion rate by 2010. The teaching of sex and relationships in primary schools is not progressing fast enough to prepare children for the earlier onset of puberty, the Independent Advisory Group on Teenage Pregnancy will warn ministers in its annual report. The advisers have been encouraged by a 10% reduction in the teenage conception rate since 1998, and they attribute part of this improvement to more confident teaching of personal, social and health education (PSHE) in...

<p>Four years ago, a British farmer shot and killed a 16-year-old burglar on his property and wounded an older accomplice.</p> <p>The wounded intruder, a career criminal with 34 convictions, served 18 months for the burglary.</p> <p>The Norfolk farmer, a recluse named Tony Martin, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.</p>

TV watchdog checks claims of bias on Murdoch channel The Murdoch-owned Fox News Channel, whose determinedly patriotic stance during the Iraq conflict brought it critical notoriety but commercial success, is under investigation by television regulators in Britain for alleged bias. The independent television commission is investigating nine complaints by viewers of the channel, broadcast on Sky Digital satellite, also controlled by Rupert Murdoch. If the network is found to have breached the ITC's "due impartiality" rules, it could be forced out. In 1999 the ITC revoked the licence of Med TV, a channel aimed at the Kurdish diaspora, for failing...

8.30amIndependent introduces web chargesCiar ByrneThursday April 24, 2003The Guardian The Independent: hoping to bring its website into the black  The Independent is following in the footsteps of the Times and the Financial Times by charging users to access parts of its website.Selected areas of Independent.co.uk, including opinion pieces, articles by celebrated Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk, the news and sport archive and the cryptic crosswords, will carry a charge from this week.While much of the site's content will remain free, the Independent is hoping to bring the website into the black by erecting barriers in these four areas as part...

HOME OF THE FREE: ARNETT JOINS MIRRORTHE reporter sacked by American TV for telling the truth about the war is joining the Daily Mirror.Veteran newsman Peter Arnett was axed by NBC yesterday accused of being a Saddam stooge. He told state-run Iraqi TV the conflict was not going to plan because of fierce resistance and said his Baghdad reports "help those who oppose war".He joins the Mirror on the day it was revealed that 8,700 bombs have rained down on Iraq in 12 days, including 3,000 missiles over the weekend.After his sacking, Pulitzer Prize winner Arnett said: "I report...

Poll is currently at http://www.sky.com/skynews/home/.I believe the poll will be moved to this page after being dumped from the front page, but I'm not 100% certain.Anyway... Day ten of war: is your support for campaign: IncreasingDecreasingUnchanged I am anti-war

  Coalition troops in Iraq BRITONS BACKING WAR A large majority of Britons believe that war in Iraq should be seen through to a successful conclusion, according to a poll. Despite 23 British deaths and fears the conflict will drag on for months, just 11% of those questioned believe UK troops should be withdrawn. The survey by ICM Research for the News of the World found 84% in favour of continuing war until its objectives had been achieved.Pre-war polls regularly found large majorities opposed to military action.But now it has begun, surveys have shown Britons rallying behind troops.The poll suggests Tony Blair...

THE BBC was last night sensationally condemned for “one-sided” war coverage — by its own front line defence correspondent. Paul Adams attacks the Beeb for misreporting the Allied advance in a blistering memo leaked to The Sun. And he warned the BBC’s credibility is at risk for suggesting British troops are paying a “high price for small victories”. On Monday, he wrote from US Central Command in Qatar: “I was gobsmacked to hear, in a set of headlines today, that the coalition was suffering ‘significant casualties’. “This is simply NOT TRUE. Nor is it true to say — as the...

Dramatic pictures have been coming out of Iraq since the bombing campaign began. The Sun carries perhaps the most dramatic yet - capturing the moment the "shock and awe" campaign began.The anti-war Mirror puts it another way. It describes last night's attack, which was beamed across the world as it happened, as "America's night of shame".The cruise missile blitz is captured in the two detailed pictures by the Daily Mail, which shows smoke pouring out of one large building.The Daily Express opts to carry a picture of Iraqi troops surrendering in southern Iraq, although the paper's picture desk has ignored...

The Sun reports on what it calls the "Battle For Basra". It says 10,000 British troops stormed into action to seize the key city in southern Iraq.The Mirror carries a full-page picture of smoke rising from a missile strike in Baghdad with the headline "Mass Destruction".The Star also leads with a picture of a burning Baghdad and says allies have blitzed Saddam's palaces and troops have warned: "You ain't seen nothing yet".The Express says 10,000 British troops have spearheaded a full-blown invasion of Iraq and says they have come under fire from "the missiles Saddam the liar said he never...

At least I knew where I stood during the Falklands war By Anne Robinson(Filed: 01/03/2003) My first acquaintance with war - and a very distant one at that - was as a young and very green assistant editor at the start of the Falklands conflict. The night the news came that British troops had landed and recaptured South Georgia, I was in charge of the Daily Mirror.A month later, when the Sheffield went down, I was again editing the paper. In the weeks between, more than 400 young men had died. That poor mothers' sons, on whoever's side, were losing...

Lights, camera, action. "Tonight, ladies and gentleman, we are going to put America on trial" (polite applause). The charge: "America's first-strike foreign policy is thinly disguised imperialism, which threatens to fuel another arms race, spawn a new generation of terrorists and destroy international relations (more applause)." No one bothers to explain the basis upon which these charges have actually been laid. But we are, after all, locked in a BBC studio (the one where they make The Weakest Link), and the majority of those invited to participate in the discussion have little interest in the quality of the debate, or...

The Sun storms Paris Zut alors! ... The Sun's Paris editionClick pic to enlarge THE Sun is handing out a special edition of the paper on the streets of Paris today. In it we ask the French people if they are ashamed of their spineless President, Jacques 'Le Worm' Chirac: **Translation below** THE SUN, journal lu quotidiennement par dix millions de personnes, présente ses salutations aux parisiens. Nous pensons qu’en menaçant constamment de recourir à son droit de veto pour empêcher toute action militaire destinée à faire appliquer la volonté des Nations Unies en Irak, votre président, Jacques Chirac, est...

Public loses faith in the Chancellor By Toby Helm and George Trefgarne(Filed: 31/01/2003) Labour's lead over the Conservatives has been cut to its lowest level since the fuel protests of September 2000, amid clear signs that the Government is losing its hard-won reputation for economic competence.A survey by YouGov put Labour on 36 per cent (down three since December), the Tories on 32 per cent (unchanged) and the Liberal Democrats on 24 (up three).Crucially, Labour and the Tories now stand almost neck and neck on the issue of economic management, the subject on which Tony Blair based much of his...

January 29, 2003 New union law to crush fire strike By Jill Sherman and Philip Webster Prescott uses emergency powers in historic breach with Labour allies John Prescott is risking Labour civil war by taking powers to end the fire dispute DRACONIAN powers to force unions to bow to the Government's will on pay were announced by John Prescott and Tony Blair yesterday. Mr Prescott's patience with the Fire Brigades Union finally snapped as he declared that he would take emergency powers to impose a pay settlement on the striking firefighters. A Bill will be introduced next month which...

IT IS a case of life imitating art, or in this case, science fiction. In Michael Crichton’s latest book, Prey, a swarm of molecular-sized computer chips escapes from a laboratory. The chips grow in intelligence and threaten to take over the human race. While this chilling scenario remains confined to the realms of imagination, the technology behind the novel could soon become reality through ground-breaking work being carried out by Scottish scientists. A team at Edinburgh University, led by DK Arvind, a reader in informatics and director of the school of informatics, is being funded by the US military to...

God bless those Brits (love them,hate them). Despite spending most of their time fretting over whether Tony sniffs George's ass too much or whether Tony gives it to Cherie too much or whether Charles or Wills will be the next Queen of England, they still have time to focus on the absurd. According to the BBC, a British bookmaker is giving 6-1 to odds that actor Michael Douglas will one day become President of the United States. You see Michael, like most self-important, self-deluded, self-gratifying, liberal Hollywood types, fancies himself more than a guy who makes a living kissing Glenn...

Blair suffers a double defeat on asylum seekers at Seville summit By Francis Elliott in Seville (Filed: 23/06/2002) European Union leaders yesterday moved to establish an EU border police force to patrol shores, ports and crossing points against illegal immigrants. The dramatic attempt to strengthen "fortress Europe" could mean foreign guards wearing an EU uniform patrolling in Britain. European leaders gather for a group photo at the end of the Seville summit The heads of government said that the moves were a stepping stone to the creation of a fully fledged European-wide force which would act in tandem with...

Logan quits GMTV for America Owen GibsonWednesday May 22, 2002 Lara Logan  GMTV's Lara Logan is cashing in on her six months of fame and defecting to American TV after being offered a deal that will give her a primetime slot alongside the legendary Dan Rather.The 31-year-old South African is leaving to join CBS after her reports from the frontline in Afghanistan impressed US news bosses.According to sources she clinched the deal in the last week."This is an absolutely brilliant move for Lara. It's very exciting and will give her a chance to prove herself in one of the toughest...

For three days running, the White House has issued alarming warnings. On Sunday, the Vice-President, Dick Cheney, said another terrorist attack was "almost certain". On Monday the FBI director, Robert Mueller, said suicide attacks were "inevitable". Then on Tuesday, the Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, said terrorists would "inevitably" get weapons of mass destruction and "not hesitate to use them". President George Bush joined in, saying that terrorists were "nothing but a bunch of cold-blooded killers". That morning he said, Mueller had told him that "al-Qaeda is active, plotting, planning, you know, trying to hit us". Not surprisingly, a CBS...

Straw rebukes EU chief for attack on American link By David Rennie in Washington(Filed: 09/05/2002) JACK STRAW sharply rebuked Romano Prodi, the European Commission president, yesterday for suggesting that Britain's close relationship with America made it a bad European.Warning European leaders never to forget how much they benefited from America's power and strength, the Foreign Secretary said: "I do not share the view of Romano Prodi that Britain's relationship with America somehow gets in the way of playing a full part in Europe."I reject the idea that relations with the United States and EU involve a zero sum - that...

The young prefer Rule Britannia to Cool Britannia By Tom Leonard, Media Editor (Filed: 09/05/2002) THE popular image of young people as opposed to tradition, the monarchy and patriotism is wrong, says a poll of attitudes to Britishness.The survey of 20- to 30-year-olds shows that symbols of "old" Britain, such as the Royal Family, Buckingham Palace and Marks & Spencer, figure far more prominently than the trappings of "Cool Britannia" in many young people's sense of national identity.Nearly three-quarters of those questioned said they were proud to be British, an emotion that 50 per cent said they felt when they...

EU leader attacks Britain over links with United StatesBy Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Brussels and George Jones, Political Editor (Filed: 30/04/2002) ROMANO PRODI, the president of the European Commission, rebuked Britain yesterday for lacking the courage to embrace the euro and play a full part in Europe.   Romano Prodi speaks at the opening of the Said Business School at Oxford University He angered the Government and Opposition politicians by claiming that Britain's attachment to the United States was built on wishful thinking and twisted notions of Europe."I wonder what makes this great nation so confident when dealing with a...

ADMIRAL Sir Michael Boyce, Chief of Defence Staff, has warned that the International Criminal Court could put servicemen's lives at risk.Ministers were told that commanders would face a choice between being accused of war crimes or changing rules of engagement to the point where the enemy could be certain of striking first.Senior officers said that, to avoid the risk of being called before the court, rules of engagement would have to be changed in a way that ensured that an enemy with fewer scruples could fire first.If a ship's commander, an aircraft pilot or an artillery officer were to attack...

Summit May Signal U.K.-U.S. Split Over Israel 8 April 2002 Summary Official statements following the recent meeting between U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair focused primarily on the need for military action in Iraq, but a joint statement on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was conspicuously absent. This could betray a deeper disagreement between the two countries over how to deal with Israel, further sidetracking Washington from its pursuit of al Qaeda. Analysis The recent meeting between U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Crawford, Texas, initially was supposed to focus on...

Tony Blair went to see George Bush in Texas and did what we at The Mirror feared he would do.He rolled over like a rather docile poodle, wagged his tail dutifully, and agreed to everything the war-hungry American President wanted.Mr Blair's speech last night could have been written by the White House.It could be boiled down to this: 'America is big, America is strong, America is wonderful - and we in Britain are proud to sit by its side in whatever it does."In particular, we are apparently delighted to support a new war on Iraq to get rid of Saddam...

SEVEN peace activists have been abused by Israeli passengers while flying back to Britain after being trapped by Israel's invasion of Bethlehem.The four men and three women, who had travelled through occupied territories on Good Friday, were allowed safe passage out of the city after he intervention of the British Consulate in Jerusalem. But they had to be escorted off the plane by police at Heathrow after Israeli passengers on board BA flight 164 from Tel Aviv began to abuse them after learning what they had been doing.The seven - Joanne Bird, from Manchester, Emma Bleach, from Bristol, Chris Dunham,...

THE Royal Marines of 45 Commando are to mount night-time raids against followers of Osama Bin Laden in mined mountain passes more than 130 miles from their base after they arrive in Afghanistan this week. The 1,700 marines, most of them in their late teens and early twenties, have been assigned to seek and destroy Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters in a large expanse of mountains in the east of the country. The area is close to the border with Pakistan, over which many fighters have fled. The marines will work in groups of between three and 50, depending on the...

BOYS have had a place in the British Armed Forces since well before the formation of the New Model Army by Cromwell in the mid-1600s.Drummer boys, most in their early teens but some as young as nine, enlisted in the army, while "powder monkeys" of a similar age helped both the army's and the navy's gunners reload their guns. Runners and ship's boys were also normally in their early teens. Technically, they were regarded as non-combatants but shot, shell and often opponents all ignored such distinctions. At the battle of Isandhlwana on Jan 22, 1879, when the Zulus destroyed a...

BRITAIN is to end its centuries-old policy of sending boy soldiers into battle after deciding to ratify a UN protocol aimed at preventing the use of children in warfare.But it will continue to recruit 15-year-olds even though the protocol is specifically aimed at stopping armies from recruiting anyone under 18. At present, more than a third of recruits to the Armed Forces are below this age.The deployment of 17-year-old soldiers during the Gulf war and the Kosovo conflict led Save the Children and other campaign groups to compare Ministry of Defence policy to that of Third World countries.An investigation is...

LONDON: The Briton suspected of plotting the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan was deeply moved by his experience of the Bosnian war, the possible start of a journey to Muslim extremism, a friend said on Thursday. The trial of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh begins in Karachi on Friday. He is charged with the abduction and killing of Wall Street Journal writer Daniel Pearl. Asad Khan took Omar, then in his late teens, on a mission to bring aid to Muslims in the Balkans a decade ago, an experience that apparently led to his conversion to...

"Thus are the young condemned to live in an eternal present, a present that merely exists, without connection to a past that might explain it or to a future that might develop from it. Theirs is truly a life of one damned thing after another."– Theodore Dalrymple For those of us who know that life today in Britain is the future in America a dozen years down the road, Theodore Dalrymple's book, "Life at the Bottom: The worldview that makes the underclass," is a frightening prospect (Ivan R. Dee, Chicago, 2001). Some things are different, of course: America's immigrant groups...

Unionists outrage local Muslims Unionist councillors in County Antrim have outraged local Muslims by refusing to accept an Islamic gift which had been presented to an SDLP member. One Democratic Unionist Party member of Ballymena council said he was suspicious of Muslims because of the 11 September terrorist attacks in the United States. The gift at the centre of the row is a brass plate, decorated with Islamic designs intended to express friendship with the people of the town. It was presented to SDLP councillor Declan O'Loan at an exhibition in the town's museum. He wanted to pass it to...

ARROGANT EU chief Romano Prodi last night ordered Tony Blair to put the brakes on the planned US military action in Iraq.Mr Prodi told the PM to take advantage of Britain’s special relationship with America and persuade President Bush not to bomb Baghdad.And in a startling boast, he predicted the European Union would become a “superpower” to rival the US. His outburst came in an astonishing interview in which he warned that Britain must ditch the Pound or “vanish” and the EU must have a single foreign policy. He also slammed Mr Blair for snubbing the EU over Afghanistan war...

(Filed: 25/03/2002) THE Army's new Apache attack helicopter cannot fire its Hellfire anti-tank missiles for fear that debris ejected on launching could cause catastrophic damage. The problem is confirmed by a Ministry of Defence document leaked to The Telegraph. The MoD was unable to say how much damage could be caused. It was working with the makers to solve the problem, officials said.But defence sources said there were serious concerns that the debris could damage the main or tail rotors, causing the helicopter to crash.The Army is buying 67 Apache helicopters. They are being built in Britain by Westland under...

BRITAIN’S 1,700-strong commando battle group will be ready for combat within about two weeks of arriving in Afghanistan, Brigadier Roger Lane, the British commander of the force, said yesterday. He added that he would hold the power of veto over any proposal by the American commander in Afghanistan to launch an offensive involving the Royal Marines if he felt it was right to do so. The Ministry of Defence confirmed that the brigadier had a “national red card”, but said that he would be involved in planning with the Americans and could express any concerns then. Brigadier Lane said that...

SIKH ACTIVIST DETAINED IN CANADA AND BRITAIN AT BEHEST OF INDIAN GOVERNMENT -- HON. DAN BURTON (Extensions of Remarks - March 21, 2002) [Page: E426] GPO's PDF --- HON. DAN BURTON OF INDIANA IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Wednesday, March 20, 2002 Mr. BURTON of Indiana . Mr. Speaker, Dr. Bhagwan Singh Sandhu, a leader of the Sikh Students Federation, was detained at the airports in Vancouver and in London last month, apparently at the behest of the Indian government. According to information I have received, Dr. Sandhu was detained overnight and interrogated by Canadian intelligence agents who were in...

War on terror » Indian police say a pilot has confessed to planning attack on Parliament but Scotland Yard doesn't want to knowAn al-Qa'ida plot to crash an airliner into Parliament is being "swept under the carpet" by Scotland Yard, one of India's most senior policemen has claimed.On Tuesday, Mohammed Afroz, 24, a trainee pilot, will be taken from a top-security Bombay prison to be charged in court with masterminding a plan to hijack a Manchester-bound aircraft and fly it into the House of Commons on 11 September.According to the Indian authorities, the plot was abandoned when security was stepped...

Monday March 25, 8:46 AM Britain can attack Iraq without a UN mandate: Hoon Britain can use force against Iraq without a United Nations mandate if Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein is seen as a threat, Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said. The government reserves the right to order a nuclear attack against Iraq if chemical or biological weapons are targeted at British troops or the public, Hoon said in a television interview, echoing comments he made last week. His remarks appeared to be at odds with those of Britain's International Development Secretary Clare Short, who on Friday insisted that any military...

Britain was accused last night of falsely claiming that al-Qaeda terrorists had built a 'biological and chemical weapons' laboratory in Afghanistan to justify the deployment of 1,700 Royal Marines to fight there. The allegation follows a Downing Street briefing by a senior official to newspapers on Friday which claimed US forces had discovered a biological weapons laboratory in a cave in eastern Afghanistan after fighting near the city of Gardez this month. A 'senior Whitehall source' gave detailed claims of how American soldiers had found the cave following heavy fighting for al-Qaeda positions around the village of Shah-e-Kot. One report...

British objections to the use of British-supplied weapons in Israel's latest military push against the Palestinians have focused new attention on the United States' reluctance to restrain Israel's use of the multi-billion-dollar, high-tech arms it sells to the Jewish state each year. The US is embarrassed by the high profile given to some of its machinery in the occupied territories - particularly its F-16 fighter jets, in missile strikes against police stations and other public buildings, and its Apache attack helicopters, in Israel's controversial campaign to assassinate Palestinian militants. But the Administration has refused to go public with its growing...

THE Church of England is on a collision course with the Government over Iraq by producing a report for bishops which argues that an attack on Saddam Hussein would be immoral and seen as the "cruel thirst for vengeance".The report, by the Church's Board for Social Responsibility, says that it would be difficult to see how Western military action in Iraq could meet the criteria of being a just war. Instead, in an implicit criticism of the hardening stance being taken by Tony Blair, the briefing paper says that calls for such action merely "reflect the priorities of American foreign...

Billed as crack mountain troops, the marines lack the training for the task ahead, writes their former instructing officer John Barry Some time soon, but not too soon we hope, those members of the Taliban or Al-Qaeda who have stayed for the fight will be squinting through their sights at a new enemy: 3 Commando Brigade and the boys of 45 Commando Royal Marines. As they wait and watch and shoot, they may have time to ponder why this new force has replaced the last one they encountered — the US army in differing forms, from mountain troops to various...