Free Republic

Live coverage of the run up to tonight's BREXIT vote in Parliament.

(COMMENTARY) Nigel Farage was explaining to a caller yesterday that 95 percent of British businesses don't do business with the EU. His statement of fact reminds us that the "little people" mean nothing in this debate. As "Mr. Brexit" has often explained, we have a corporatist system of government in the nations of the world where big banks, big business and big government are one. Its been almost 80 years since a British Prime Minister waved a piece of paper with the cameras rolling and even televising to a small audience with the BBC's Richard Dimbleby (David Dimbleby's father) announcing...

Theresa May is heading for a crushing defeat on Brexit vote D-day in the Commons, despite a series of last-minute appeals to rebel Tory MPs to back her EU withdrawal agreement. Senior MPs are predicting a defeat for the prime minister of between 100 and 200 votes, which is likely to be followed by Jeremy Corbyn calling a vote of no confidence in the government. Mrs May's allies insist that whatever the scale of the defeat she has no intention of quitting or calling a general election, but she will come under enormous pressure to unveil a Brexit Plan B....

MANILA, Philippines — The United States has remained the country most trusted by Filipinos, and Russia and China the least, according to the latest Pulse Asia survey. The poll, taken from Dec. 14 to 21 last year, showed 84 percent of Filipinos saying the Philippines should extend “a great deal/fair amount of trust” to the US. This was higher than the 79 percent recorded in March 2017. The US was followed by Japan and Australia with trust ratings of 75 percent and 72 percent, respectively. Great Britain/United Kingdom obtained 57 percent. Reacting to the survey result, Malacañang expressed optimism Filipinos’...

At dinner the other night, a QC friend of mine — I forget what the Q stands for but I know exactly why they’re all called Cs — tried explaining to me why Theresa May’s Brexit ‘deal’ is actually a good deal for Britain. So I asked him to explain to me what’s good about it. He began by agreeing that the deal isn’t perfect but said that there’s got to be a bit of give and take on both sides. Then he conceded that of course “No deal” might have been better but because the government had made such...

BRUSSELS are likely to buckle to Britain’s key Brexit demands, due to uproar among EU countries over fears of an economic decline in the case of a no deal departure. The EU27 will give in to Prime Minister Theresa May’s demands to make the Irish border backstop a legally temporary measure. The key British demand is the only obstacle holding up Mrs May’s deal from passing in Parliament. The DUP and dozens of Brexiteers have vowed to vote down the deal this month unless changes are made to the backstop.

BRUSSELS has warned the remaining 27 European Union countries that they must urgently explain how their airline licenses comply with the bloc’s rules on ownership or face losing their rights to fly after Brexit. In a letter sent last week, Violeta Bulc, the EU commissioner responsible for transport, revealed not every national government had set out detailed plans on how airlines would meet “ownership and control requirements in all possible scenarios” of Brexit.

Watch live: A huge fire has engulfed a 24-story apartment block in West London.

Anger over the Grenfell Tower disaster could lead to riots on the streets, it has been claimed. The horrific fire, which has left at least 30 people dead, has left the local community angry and frustrated. Politicians including Sadiq Khan have been heckled at the scene and locals even shouted "where are you going?" as the Queen and Prince William left the site today. And hundreds of people are expected to attend a 'justice' rally in central London tonight. Now, a local councillor has warned there could be "unrest in the streets" if council chiefs don't step in. Eartha Pond...

The fire that swept through a 27-storey west London tower block in just 15 minutes after a fridge exploded could be one of the worst in British history amid fears nobody on the top three floors survived. Six people are known to have died after fire engulfed Grenfell Tower in White City at 1am today but Scotland Yard says the death toll is expected to rise significantly. A community leader working to locate victims, who asked not to be named, revealed that nobody who lived on the top three residential floors may have survived. He said: 'We have a list...

A massive residential fire in Ladbroke Grove suburb of London England has many people worried about trapped residents.   According to most media reports the 24 floor building, Greenfell Tower, houses 120 units and is almost completely engulfed.The fire began in the middle of the night.  There are over 40 fire squads and 200 firefighters attempting to control the blaze.(The Sun) […]  FIREFIGHTERS are battling an inferno which has engulfed a block of flats in Ladbroke Grove, West London.Some residents are trapped inside the 24-storey tower, with children among residents desperately shouting for help from windows on upper floors with neighbouring...

Blaze has engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road in White City on Wednesday morning Horrifying pictures emerged on social media showing massive flames licking up the side of the block Desperate residents trapped high in the enormous residential tower were heard 'screaming' for help Police are evacuating people and two residents are already being treated for smoke inhalation Desperate residents are building ropes from sheets in an attempt to escape from their windows as a huge inferno is engulfing a tower block in west London. The 'horrendous' blaze has struck the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, White...

Five people were arrested in London on Monday after a video posted on social media showed a group burning an effigy of Grenfell Tower, the public housing block where 72 people died in a massive blaze in 2017. In a statement, London's Metropolitan Police said five men, ages 19 to 55, were being held on suspicion of a public order offense after they turned themselves in to a south London police station. In the video, several people appear to be gathered around a model of the tower. After it's set alight, the group can be heard chuckling and cracking jokes....

The first documents that show there were official warnings about fire safety at Grenfell Tower months before tragedy ITV News has seen documents which are the first to reveal there were official warnings about fire safety at Grenfell Tower before the fire that killed 72 of its residents. A fire deficiency notice from the then London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA), served in November 2016, and a separate independent Fire Risk Assessment, both identified multiple failures at Grenfell that required prompt action by the building management, the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO). The warnings from the independent...

Too late for asbestos; it will never be brought back. But there's always the hysteria that will beset us tomorrow... There was no single cause of the tragic 24-story Grenfell Tower conflagration in London. The British newspaper The Telegraph lists eight factors, including lack of dual staircases, lack of sprinklers both outside and inside, and sub-standard fire doors—none of which at this time appear to have violated the law. But nothing contributed more to the sheer speed of the spread, blocking both exits and preventing rescues, and hence the horrific death toll, than what’s called “cladding.” That’s a covering or...

In the wake of the ghastly conflagration that engulfed a recently-renovated 24 story apartment tower in London, the world is waking up to the dire threat created by energy-saving green zealots. It turns out that nobody much worried about the fire hazard involved when flammable materials were used to add an outer “skin” of cladding to the building, creating heat insulation thanks to the air pocket between the new cladding and the old exterior wall, but also providing an ideal space for fire to race up the building. As happened. SnipDid green fever cause the obvious fire hazard to be...

Two hundred exhausted firefighters are battling the blaze and deserve to be recognised as the heroes they are. ..... But false information is being shared on social media about the length of time firefighters took to respond. At 4.12am one person wrote on Twitter: "WHERE ARE THE FIREFIGHTERS? THAT THE F*** IS TAKING SO LONG!? Fire getting out of control, people still trapped in Grenfell Tower, Latimer Road." She then added: "One woman said it took them 2 hours to arrive when their station is 2 block away." The woman who shared the false information on Twitter appears to be...

The police cordon surrounding a huge tower block fire in Notting Hill has been pushed back amid concerns the whole building could collapse. An exclusion zone was set up overnight as flames raged through the 27-storey Grenfell Tower near Ladbroke Grove causing debris to crash down the side of the building. As firefighters continued to battle the flames on Wednesday morning the cordon has reportedly been widened over concerns about the stability of the building, which contains 120 flats and is located in a densely populated area of west London. A Met Police spokeswoman confirmed there were “significant cordons” in...

Not only will Donald Trump win the November election, but his victory will propel U.S. economic growth higher, according to Jeffrey Gundlach. Trump will fuel a debt-driven increase in government spending, which Gundlach said will push GDP growth to levels reminiscent of the Ronald Reagan era. Gundlach did not endorse Trump or say whether he would vote for him. Gundlach spoke to investors on June 14 to provide updates on the DoubleLine Total Return Fund (DBLTX). He is the founder and chief investment officer of Los Angeles-based DoubleLine Capital, known for its fixed-income mutual funds, closed-end funds and ETFs. Copies...

(COMMENT AND ANALYSIS) "I think there's now a genuine danger that we may end up having a second referendum on the EU. Huge forces are working on this, and will try to get their way in the weeks to come. Prepare for an ambush" Peter Hitchens-"Mail On Sunday" Column 1/12/2019 "I think what they're going to do to us is they're going to extend Article 50. I think in time they will be able to force a second referendum upon us. I'm not certain of that, but they may. And we have two. I have two, you have two choices....