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UK war on free speech and news you're not allowed to know about
December 30th 2011
The BBC: less trustworthy, more dangerous than a cannibal polar bear - Telegraph - James Delingpole
Today's endangered polar bear story du jour comes, you won't be at all surprised to hear, from the BBC's news website. An "environmental photojournalist" named Jenny E Ross took a photograph of a polar bear eating a cub – and concluded, as of course any self-respecting environmental photojournalist would, that this was probably the result of "climate change".
The euro is destroying Europe – and for some reason Britain is supporting it
'It's a good basic axiom that if you take a quart of ice-cream and a quart of dog faeces and mix 'em together the result will taste more like the latter than the former.' So says Mark Steyn, and it's as true of the eurozone as it is of the UN (his context). For all their hackneyed phrases about 'containment' and 'avoiding contagion', EU leaders have determinedly taken Greece's debt problems (and Portugal's and Italy's and Spain's) and made them everyone else's. Result? The eurozone as a whole risks being downgraded.
December 8th 2011
We're paying £50m a day to the EU: Britain's contribution to Brussels rises to £18.5bn
Britain's contributions to the European Union have topped £50 million a day for the first time, new figures revealed last night.
Figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that the UK’s contributions to Brussels rose by 5.7 per cent last year to a record £18.5 billion – double the Home Office Budget.
At the same time, the money Britain received back from the EU fell by almost a quarter to £8.1 billion, a fall of £2.6 billion in a year.
November 25th 2011
Rothschild Lackey Osborne Cuts UK Ties With Iran Banks
George Osborne: 'We believe that the Iranian regime’s actions pose a significant threat to the UK’s national security'.
Britain has severed all ties with Iranian banks as part of a package of sanctions from the US, UK and Canada aimed at confronting Tehran's nuclear programme.
The chancellor, George Osborne, announced the measures on Monday. The unprecedented move meant all UK credit and financial institutions had to cease trading withIran's banks from the afternoon.
"We believe that the Iranian regime's actions pose a significant threat to the UK's national security and the international community," Osborne said. "Today's announcement is a further step to preventing the Iranian regime from acquiring nuclear weapons."
Downing Street said the move was expected to be discussed by EU foreign ministers in 10 days, and it hoped that other countries may follow the lead and intensify sanctions.
November 23th 2011
Welcome to the (terrifying) future: Russian super speed camera can issue thousands of tickets per hour
A new cutting edge speed gun that can track 32 vehicles at the same time could be coming to U.S. roads.
The toaster-sized camera, developed in Russia, can handle heavy traffic and issue thousands of tickets an hour.
Ontario-based Peak Gain Systems will offer the photo radar device to states next year
November 17th 2011
Council accused of a 'staggering invasion of privacy' as it plans to record EVERY conversation that takes place in taxi cabs
Cab drivers and their passengers are to be spied on during journeys in what has been denounced as a ‘a staggering invasion of privacy’.
CCTV cameras are to be fitted in 650 taxis – costing the taxpayer £260,000 – to monitor drivers throughout their shift and record the conversations of passengers.
The cameras will begin recording sound and vision from the moment the ignition is turned on and remain on for 30 minutes after the engine has stopped running.
November 16th 2011
US officials worried about security at London 2012 Olympics
US plans to send 500 FBI agents to protect its athletes as organisers admit underestimating number of security guards needed
The US has raised repeated concerns about security at the London Olympics and is preparing to send up to 1,000 of its agents, including 500 from the FBI, to provide protection for America's contestants and diplomats, the Guardian has learned.
American officials have expressed deep unease that the UK has had to restrict the scope of anti-terrorism "stop and search" powers, and have sought a breakdown of the number of British police and other security personnel that will be available next summer.
The prime minister and other senior members of the cabinet, including home secretary Theresa May and culture and sport secretary Jeremy Hunt, are taking turns to chair security meetings about the Olympics, which are often dominated by the latest questions from the US, sources said. But Washington's need for reassurance is exasperating British officials and anti-terrorism officials, who have privately raised concerns about the meddling, as well as the size of the US "footprint" in the UK during the games next year.
November 15th 2011
Ground-to-air missiles could be deployed at London Olympics
Ground-to-air missiles will be deployed to protect the London Olympics next year, under a plan being drawn up by the Ministry of Defence.
Both the RAF and Royal Navy have such weapons in their arsenals, but it would be the first time they are deployed to protect civilians, defence officials said
The defence secretary, Philip Hammond, confirmed the plan after the Guardian reported that the US has raised repeated concerns about security at the London Olympics and is preparing to send up to 1,000 of its agents, including 500 from the FBI, to cover the Games.
Hammond's predecessor, Liam Fox, raised the issue of security in the Commons on Monday,saying that surface-to-air missiles had been deployed at the Olympic Games at Atlanta in 1996
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November 15th 2011
How Britain helped Israel get the bomb
Documents uncovered by Newsnight in the British National Archives s
how how, in 1958, Britain agreed to sell Israel 20 tonnes of heavy water, a vital ingredient for the production of plutonium at Israel's top secret Dimona nuclear reactor in the Negev desert.
Robert McNamara, President John F Kennedy's defence secretary, has told Newsnight he is "astonished" at the revelation that Britain kept this secret from America.
View the documents online (4 MB)
November 8th 2011
David Cameron Wanted Internet Shutdown During Britain’s Summer Riots
Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron wanted the internet shut-down during the riots that swept England in August in order to prevent rioters from communicating with each other over social media networks, according to media reports.
Fears grew at the time that the disturbances were largely organized by youths using their mobile phones.
However, Cameron was persuaded against taking any such drastic measures by the Foreign Secretary William Hague over worries that such steps would lead to accusations of hypocrisy over the rights of free speech in Britain.
November 2th 2011
London Falling: Like a man eating his own leg
No reasonable suspicion should mean no stop and search
Big Brother Watch fully supports the call for this order not to be renewed. It is essenti
al any stop and search is based upon reasonable suspicion, and Parliament should recognise that it is a core part of a democracy for actions of the state to be proportionate and necessary.
Terrorism Legislation should not be a catch-all for lazy policing, and it is a serious concern that there are not adequate safeguards in place to protect the civil liberties of innocent members of the public.
The independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, David Anderson, has warned safeguards put in place are insufficient and the ongoing experience of photographers is just one example of the police’s inability to prevent misuse.
The Home Secretary’s order has no place on the British statute book and Parliament should not allow it to remain there as it currently stands.
September 24th 2011
Despot Deals: UK openly selling arms to dictators
UK Now Branding 4 Yr Olds As Racist, Homophobic
The equivalent of around 100 primary school pupils a day were reported to local authorities after using offensive language in lessons and the playground, it is claimed.
In some cases, pupils were reprimanded for relatively trivial squabbles and employing insults such as “gaylord” and “broccoli head”.
Researchers said many children – some as young as four – are being reported despite being “unlikely to understand the meaning of these words”.
Schools are obliged to report all “hate speech” incidents to local authorities as part of the 2000 Race Relations Act. Many councils are also demanding that schools log data relating to homophobic incidents.
The reports – including pupils’ names and descriptions of incidents – can be used by police and social services and can remain on children’s records for years.
 The cost of British military operations in Afghanistan is now officially estimated at more than £18bn, figures released on Thursday show. The cost of imposing a no-fly zone and bombing targets in Libya is so far officially estimated at £260m.
The figures are contained in a report by the Commons defence committee which makes it clear the sums are no more than estimates. "The total cost of operations in Afghanistan is not known", it states. The Ministry of Defence told the committee: "It is too early accurately to forecast the cost of UK operations in Libya".
The defence committee revealed that the MoD estimates that military operations in Afghanistan this year will cost more than £4bn.
However, the figures for Afghanistan , and the £260m estimated for Libya - more than half spent on bombs and missiles - are described as "additional costs" of operations to be paid for by the Treasury out its reserves.
The figures do not include what the defence committee describes as "additional costs in terms of training opportunities cancelled or deferred and equipment wear and tear that will eventually have to be met".
 Anyone feeling smug about the Greek crisis should take a quick dekko at our own statistics.
Spending in April and May was 4.1 per cent higher than during the equivalent period in 2010. Government borrowing was £27.4 billion, up from £25.9 billion the previous year. This additional debt comes despite a series of tax rises: VAT, fuel duty, income tax and National Insurance have all gone up.
In other words, despite everything we keep reading about “the cuts”, spending and borrowing are both higher now than they were under Gordon Brown. Since the Coalition took office, our national debt has increased from 53 to 61 per cent of GDP.
Not that ministers are wholly to blame for these figures, of course. Labour bequeathed a country in recession, with falling tax receipts and rising social security payments. A large part of the increase is accounted for by the interest payments on the debt racked up during the wastrel Brown years. Most of the rest has gone on overseas aid, healthcare and a whopping 74 per cent net increase in our contribution to the EU budget.
 Straw, the former Labour foreign secretary, warned that the euro “is going to collapse,” and said, “Is it not better that this happens quickly rather than a slow death?"
Straw's message came after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said the world economy would be destroyed if IMF members did not aid the Greeks.
Speaking at the parliament, Straw said, “What the Government should do instead of sheltering behind the complacent language, weasel words that 'it is not appropriate, we should not speculate' is recognize that this eurozone cannot last.
“And it is the responsibility of the British Government to be open with the British people now about the alternative prospects.”
Making a Killing: UK war-wallet bomb-doors open
With civilian casualties in Libya mounting and no end in sight, those paying for the intervention might be stumping up more than they bargained for. The UK has announced that its taxpayers might see one point six billion dollars of their hard-earned cash diverted to fund the intervention. And, as RT's Laura Emmett reports, there's little patience left among an already disillusioned
Just last week, YouTube complied with the British government by censoring a video containing a protest against an apparent legal injustice.
A group of British citizens attempted to carry out a civil arrest of Judge Michael Peake for his stance against Roger Hayes, who refused to pay council tax both as "a protest against the government’s treasonous activities in sacrificing Britain to globalist interests and as a result of Hayes clearly proving that council tax is illegal." A video containing the attempted arrest was uploaded March of this year. That video is now unable to be viewed from inside the UK
According to the Daily Telegraph , Mossad's secret agents followed a Syrian official , broke into his hotel room in London, and stole the diplomat's documents , whilegovernment was totally indifferent UK .
 Britain took one more supportive step in favor of Israel, as it was thoroughly unconcerned over Mossad, the Israeli secret service's London operation in 2006.
The Israeli secret service seemingly had planned to assassinate the Syrian official but averted the plan fearing the huge diplomatic rift with the British government.
The Daily Telegraph reports : the secret service had sent three secret teams to London including a group of spotters that were dispatched to Heathrow airport to spot the official when he arrived from Damascus . The second team was staying in the hotel, and the third kept an eye on his visitors and his actions.
David Cameron's gift of war and racism, to them and us
The Euro-American attack on Libya has nothing to do with protecting anyone; only the terminally naive believe such nonsense. It is the West’s response to popular uprisings in strategic, resource-rich regions of the world and the beginning of a war of attrition against the new imperial rival, China.
 President Barack Obama’s historical distinction is now guaranteed. He is America’s first black president to invade Africa. His assault on Libya is run by the US Africa Command, which was set up in 2007 to secure the continent’s lucrative natural resources from Africa’s impoverished people and the rapidly spreading commercial influence of China. Libya, along with Angola and Nigeria, is China’s principal source of oil. As American, British and French planes currently incinerate both “bad” and “good” Libyans, the evacuation of 30,000 Chinese workers is under way, perhaps permanently. Statements by western officials and media that a “deranged and criminal Colonel Gaddafi” is planning “genocide” against his own people still await evidence. This is reminiscent of fraudulent claims that required “humanitarian intervention” in Kosovo, the final dismemberment of Yugoslavia and the establishment of the biggest US military base in Europe.
London 2012 Olympics: water, mobile phones and sandwiches could be banned
 Families hoping to enjoy a day out at next year's Olympic Games will find they are very limited about what they can bring into any of the venues. Every bag will be X-rayed in a series of security checks as stringent as those at airports.
People booking tickets, which went on sale this week, have to sign a terms and conditions document, which runs to 7,350 words, published by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (Locog).
This list of rules and regulations makes clear that the following items are banned: "Food, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, liquids in containers of greater than 100ml in size, umbrellas, horns, whistles, drums, rattles, musical instruments, or any other devices that in the opinion of Locog may disturb a session (including mobile telephones), flasks, Thermoses and in general any material that Locog may deem dangerous or that may cause damage or disruption to a session
British Nuclear Power Plant Goes Dark. Stuxnet Worm To Blame?
 According to Siemens’ website, EDF Energy is a customer of the German technology giant, whose infrastructure software has suffered from a global infection of the sophisticated Stuxnet worm. A 2007 briefing deck by the Technical Working Group on Nuclear Power Plant Control and Instrumentation disclosed that Heysham 2 had its Reypac controllers replaced with Siemens S7. Today’s outage occurred at Heysham 1 and so far I cannot determine if Heysham 1 had the same upgrades as Heysham 2. EDF Energy hasn’t disclosed any further information about the outage at the time of this writing.
London School of Useful Idiots: How a cadre of Blair cronies, ex-MI6 chiefs and top dons at a top university supported Gaddafi for his millions
The trouble with Fred Halliday was that he drank too much. He repeatedly warned colleagues at the London School of Economics, where he was professor of international relations, that taking money from Libya would come back to haunt them.
Fred spoke ten languages including several from the Middle East. He could see that the university where he had taught for 15 years was dealing with the Devil and risking its precious international reputation. He didn’t even want Saif Gaddafi to be a student there.
They didn’t listen to him. Not just because he drank, of course, but because they were greedy for Libyan money, a donation of a whopping £1.5million that Saif, now 38, made to the LSE a year after they had given him a PhD.
Quiet Martial Law Coming To UK?
 In a worrying headline from the Daily Mail, it has been revealed that SAS Troops could be deployed in the UK to help with the trumped up terror threat; effectively a watered down version of martial law.
…security officials believe Al Qaeda’s ‘International Operations wing’ is plotting one or more attacks in Europe, including against the UK.
Possible methods include a suicide or car bomb or the use of ‘firearms against aircraft and airport targets’ – similar to the Mumbai machine-gun attacks of 2008.
The UK establishment’s monitoring of terror threat levels is extremely dubious and contradictory. Prior to the 7/7 attacks, despite a host of countries declaring that an attack on Britain was imminent, including Spain, France and Saudi Arabia, the latter who claims to have given MI5 specific intelligence of an impending attack on the London transit system, it was decided to lower the threat level and pull extra police out of London.
CBN News: Europes multiculturalism leading to civil war?
UK : Public sector workers could see their 'gold-plated' pensions halved
 Public sector workers could see their ‘gold-plated’ pensions slashed to make it easier to transfer services to private firms and charities.
Payments due to hundreds of thousands of nurses, doctors and bin collectors could be cut to less than half under proposals being considered by the Treasury.
The Government wants providers othethan the State to take over the running of some services as part of David Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ plan.
US accuses Britain of legitimising Gaddafi
 Louis Susman, the US ambassador to London, suggested moves to repair relations with the Libyan dictator had only served to give him "greater stature" on the world stage while campaigners condemned the rapprochement as a failure.
Up to 300 demonstrators are thought to have been killed after forces loyal to Col Muammar Gaddafi attacked them with sniper fire, knives and heavy artillery.
The eastern city of Benghazi was said to be in a state of “civil mutiny” after forces, believed to be African mercenaries, attacked crowds attending mass burials of the dead from earlier violence.
The unrest, which follows the overthrow of the rulers of neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt and protests in Bahrain, was reported to have spread to several other Libyan cities last night.
Downing Street said David Cameron was “gravely concerned by reports of escalating violence and large numbers of civilian deaths”. “We condemn any use of force by the Libyan authorities against peaceful protesters. Such repression is unacceptable, counterproductive and wrong,” said a statement. “The Libyan government must listen to the views of its people and respond to them.”
Arms used in Bahrain crackdown 'made in UK, sold recklessly'
Feeling the squeeze: British workers facing £750 cut in annual salary
 The financial crisis is having a direct impact on workers’ pay packets, with figures revealing more than £750 is being slashed from annual incomes.
The Office of National Statistics has revealed that wage growth has slowed to its lowest level since August, with average employees receiving a rise of only 1.8 per cent in the last three months of 2010.
But with the cost of living increasing by 5.1 per cent, the average worker is suffering a 3.3 per cent drop in their wages, effectively wiping £782 from their purchasing power.
Testing times: With a rising cost of living, workers are facing £750 being wiped off their annual pay packets
A wage growth of 1.8 per cent is down from 2.1 per cent last month and is the smallest level of growth for five months.
The statistics were revealed as the Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, said Britain’s squeezed economy would continue to have a notable effect on wages and the prices of goods and services.
Britain home to nearly 400 war crimes suspects
 Hundreds of suspected war criminals are living in Britain, despite recommendations by a UK Border Agency unit that action be taken against them.
A special war crimes unit within the immigration agency has recommended action against 495 individuals in the last five years believed to have taken part in torture, genocide, crimes against humanity or other war crimes.
But, according to figures provided to the all-party parliamentary group on genocide by the agency, only a fifth have been refused entry, removed or have left voluntarily, leaving 383 suspects at large. Allegations against 47 individuals were believed by the agency to merit further investigation by Scotland Yard, police confirmed.
The 383 suspects include 105 from Iraq, 75 from Afghanistan, 73 from Sri Lanka, 39 from Rwanda, 32 from Zimbabwe and 26 from the Democratic Republic of Congo. They are believed to include senior officials from Saddam Hussein's regime, a senior Afghan intelligence service official alleged to be involved in torture and a former police chief from the Democratic Republic of Congo, who confessed in a radio interview to overseeing torture.
Luton airport's holographic helpers
'More British families failing to pay rent'
 The Association of Residential Letting Agents carried out the survey whose results suggest that 4 out of 10 agents said they witnessed an increase in the number of tenants having trouble paying rent in the last quarter of 2010, up from 35.9 percent in the third quarter, British media reported.
The results of the survey also revealed that redundancies combined with reduced working hours or pay cuts had resulted in many people struggling to pay their rent.
"Without guaranteed rent income, landlords may also have problems paying mortgages”, said the association's operations manager Ian Potter.
"At worst it may result in a rise in repossessions", he added.
Housing campaigners have called for more money for affordable council homes and laws to stop private landlords from charging extortionate rents.
Meanwhile, housing charity Shelter says more than two million people have used credit cards to pay their mortgage or rent, warning that more people could be left homeless.
UK For sale: all of our forests. Not some of them, nor most of them – the whole lot
 Tories have never been treehuggers, but their plans to sell off all state-owned forests are unwarranted
We now know, thanks to the junior environment minister Jim Paice's frank evidence to a recent House of Lords select committee, that the government is considering the sale of not just "some", or even "substantial", amounts of woodland as the public was originally led to believe, but of all state-owned English trees across the commission's 635,000-acre Forestry Commission estate. This includes many royal forests, state-owned ancient woodlands, sites of special scientific interest, heathland, campsites, farms and sporting estates
Britain: SAS Hit Squads At Shopping Malls
 SAS hit squads are today protecting packed shopping centres from terrorists - with orders to shoot to kill.
The regiment's elite troops are poised to foil any al-Qaeda bid to cause Mumbai-style carnage amid Britain's Christmas crowds.
The Who Dares Wins teams have instructions to strike hard and fast to combat the "real and credible" threat of a bomb-and-gun onslaught by fanatics.
The crack SAS troops are equipped with weapons including high-velocity Minimi semi-automatic assault rifles, gas-loading pistols and stun grenades.
They have been briefed to "engage and neutralise" any terrorists as quickly as possible to minimise the chance of civilian deaths. They know the first 90 minutes are crucial to prevent the toll soaring.
Europe tells Britain to justify itself over fingerprinting children in schools
 Hank Roberts, a member of the executive of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, welcomed the EU's intervention.
"I am very pleased the European Commission is taking action. I believe the fingerprinting of children is a totally unnecessary infringement of civil liberties that could have far reaching implications," he said. "The legal situation must be looked at. This is being done surreptitiously without parents being told."
The commission has taken up the case of a Scottish father who has battled education authorities for several years because his daughter's fingerprints were taken without the family's permission.
Refused permission to take the case to court, the father was told by Information Commissioner's Office, the British data protection watchdog, that the secondary school did not need to ask parental permission to fingerprint his child.
He was also informed that his daughter's "consent could not be freely given" because her fingerprint scan was needed if she was to be able to get school dinner.
"There are significant concerns that the compulsory fingerprinting of children for these purposes is against the EU data protection directive," said a commission official.
Guy Herbert, general secretary of the NO2ID privacy campaign, said: "The big issue is that people have no redress. There is nothing people can do. If we had a right of privacy then people would have access to the courts."
Children will be given shopping vouchers for walking to school
 Children will be given shopping vouchers for walking to school under a radical Government plan to combat obesity
Under the scheme, which will be part of a public health white paper to be announced on Tuesday, children will receive Topshop vouchers and cinema tickets for travelling to school on foot.
Every school in the country will be offered access to technology which would allow children to use swipe cards to track their journeys, so that points can be swapped for consumer rewards.
Under a pilot scheme under way in Wimbledon, south London, teenage girls receive a £5 Topshop voucher if they walk to school eight times, and an Odeon cinema ticket for five journeys, in a certain period
 More than two million new homes will have to be built over the next 25 years to cope with immigration, official figures disclosed yesterday.
They showed that room will have to be found to provide homes for 83,000 migrant families a year if the influx continues at the current rate.
More than a third of all the new houses and flats made available between now and the mid-2030s will be needed for individuals and families coming to Britain from abroad, the analysis said.
Ireland -- The Revolt has Started!
 Ireland is burst, broke, finished, kaput! This story has dominatied the World Media for over two years and has reached a deafening crescendo in recent days. Like most of what we read in the media ,it is lies, disinformation and propaganda. The facts are far different!
Ireland as such was not broke, our runaway squander mania banks were! The international financial markets are attempting to get the Irish Taxpayer to foot the bill.
I have never seen Irish people from all walks of society so totally fustrated, annoyed and disquieted. http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Over-50000-protest-on-Dublins-streets-110903879.html
Every family in Britain will have to pay £300 to bail out the Irish
 Bailing out the ailing Irish economy to the tune of billions is in Britain's 'national interest', George Osborne insisted today.
The Chancellor described Ireland as a 'friend in need' as he defended plans to pay more than £7billion into an international bailout worth up to £85billion.
British taxpayers will be landed with an increase in the colossal debt burden - already £952billion - at a time of desperate cost cutting.
They will be stung three times because Ireland will receive funds from the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and direct loans from Britain.
Wills and Kate, kissing cousins! How the Royal lovebirds are related thanks to a Tudor tyrant so bloodthirsty he's been airbrushed from history
 A dark and deliciously murky secret hovers over the continuing relationship between Prince William and his girlfriend Kate Middleton - a skeleton so large that even a vast royal closet would struggle to contain it.
For the Mail can reveal that William and Kate are distant cousins. Not only that, the common ancestor who links the two lovers is a murderous despot whose bloody deeds have been deliberately forgotten by history. Until now.
The man who links William and Kate as kith and kin is Sir Thomas Leighton, an Elizabethan soldier, diplomat and, for 40 years, the cut-throat Governor of Guernsey.
He is William's 12th generation great-grandparent, and Kate's 11th, making them 12th cousins, once removed.
A despot and a dictator, Leighton brooked no argument and made life hell for those he ruled.
'He disregarded civil liberties and kept the people down by main force,' reads a rare account of his life.
Mr Cameron is in no position to lecture the Chinese on democracy
 Quite a few eyebrows will have been raised last week at the sight of our Prime Minister in China extolling the virtues of democracy. If democracy means anything, it is a system which makes a government accountable to its people and gives them the chance to replace it with another one. That certainly doesn't apply to the one-party state in China. But how much does it apply in Britain, where almost everything our Government does is either dictated or constrained by decisions taken at a higher level by our new system of government centred in Brussels?
We are now largely ruled by a form of government which we can no more call to account than the Chinese can theirs. In effect we also live in a one-party state. And no one should know this better than David Cameron since, as a member of the European Council, he is obliged under Article 9 of the Lisbon Treaty (aka the European Constitution) to put his loyalty to the "Union" above the interests of his own country.
UK: Hospital food for children is 'shockingly unhealthy'
 Children receiving hospital treatment are being given meals containing "shocking" amounts of salt, sugar and saturated fat, damning new research into the quality of NHS food shows.
Many of the dishes served to child patients are so unhealthy that senior doctors are calling for minimum nutritional standards to be imposed on hospitals similar to those that already apply in schools.
The findings are revealed in a study carried out by the food campaign group Consensus Action on Salt and Health (Cash), which is headed by an expert in cardiovascular medicine. They analysed the nutritional content of 451 main meals, snacks and desserts served to children in hospitals in England and found that:
You cut me deep! UK loses global ambition with job & budget slashing
 No, you may not invite Zac for a sleepover
As Richard North notes, the Queen needs to have a sharp word with her eldest son. This year, her gas and electricity bills have been driven so high that she has been forced to apply for help from a government poverty fund.
“The Queen asked ministers for money to heat Buckingham Palace from a fund reserved for low-income families, it has been revealed.
Royal aides pleaded for the cash as they claimed gas and electricity bills had risen by more than 50 per cent in a year – totalling more than £1million.
They complained that the £15million government grant to cover the Queen’s palaces was inadequate and her energy bills had become ‘untenable’.
The money would have come from £60million of energy-saving grants reserved for cash-strapped families, housing associations and hospitals.”
The British Isles are the worst place to live in Europe, according to a new survey that claims residents endure higher prices, work harder and receive poorer public services than their counterparts on the continent.
Only Ireland fares worse than Britain in an updated quality of life index for Europe compiled by uSwitch.com, as the republic has fewer hours of sunshine, a higher retirement age and lower public spending on essential services.
Ann Robinson, Director of Consumer Policy at uSwitch.com, the price comparison website, said: “Last year compared with our European neighbours we were miserable but rich, this year we’re miserable and poor.
“Whereas some countries work to live, UK consumers live to work. In fact we work harder, take less holiday and retire later than most of our European counterparts - but the high cost of living makes this a necessity rather than a choice.
The UK’s tax collection agency is putting forth a proposal that all employers send employee paychecks to the government, after which the government would deduct what it deems as the appropriate tax and pay the employees by bank transfer.
The proposal by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) stresses the need for employers to provide real-time information to the government so that it can monitor all payments and make a better assessment of whether the correct tax is being paid.
Police are asking motorists to spy on each other for examples of poor driving in an alarming new extension of the 'Big Brother' state.
Drivers are told to be on the look out for inconsiderate driving or anybody making 'excessive noise' with their car.
Detailed reports - which critics warn could easily be malicious accusations against neighbours - are submitted to the police, who log extensive details on a huge computer database.
The details are also checked against DVLA databases and the Police National Computer
Speed cameras have triggered at least 28,000 crashes since 2001, according to new research.
The devices also cause motorists to drive erratically, to not concentrate on the road and to brake suddenly when one comes into sight, a study has revealed.
More than 80 per cent of drivers said they look at their speedometers rather than the cars in front when they approach a speed camera, a poll by insurance company LV revealed.
A third of more than 1,500 motorists quizzed said they had witnessed an accident or a near-miss as a result of drivers' erratic behaviour caused by the machines.
And five per cent admitted they brake suddenly to avoid getting a fine, risking rear-end shunts.
Armyof civilian patrols to walk streets of Britain
In the biggest shake-up of policing for 50 years, ministers want the public to patrol alongside beat bobbies.
They also intend to recruit up to 50,000 extra special constables to flood crime-plagued neighbourhoods with an army of volunteers.
And villages will be protected by a new breed of 'police reservists', modelled on part-time firemen and the Territorial Army
Queen Elizabeth Fronts for Rothschilds ("Crown")
It is accurate to posit that Australia, New Zealand and Canada are not independent, sovereign countries. However, these nations are not owned and run by the UK; they are owned and run by the House of Windsor Crown Temple syndicate within the City of London Corporation. The head signatory of the Crown Temple syndicate is Elizabeth Windsor (Queen Elizabeth II of England).
It should not be forgotten that the most powerful financial syndicate in the Western World is that of the European Rothschilds. The Rothschilds, because of their power base inside the City of London Corporation, have a controlling membership of the London Crown Temple syndicate, and they also have executive control of the Vatican and the Mafia though the P2 Masonic Lodge in Italy.
The United States Remains a British Colony
"In the mid-1700s the American Colonies were prospering, in part because they were issuing their own money called "Colonial Scrip," which was strictly regulated and did not require the payment of any interest. When the bankers in Great Britain heard this, they turned to the British Parliament, which passed a law prohibiting the Colonial Scrip, forcing the colonists to accept the "debt" or "fiat" money* issued by the Bank of England. Contrary to what history teaches, the American Revolution was not ignited by a tax on tea. According to Benjamin Franklin, it was because "the conditions [became] so reversed that the era of prosperity ended." He said
UK government acts to prevent arrest of Pope
The UK government is said to have set in motion a law change that will prevent the Pope from being arrested when he visits the country in September.
Officials in Whitehall – the UK government’s administrative offices – are said to be worried over plans by the atheist authors Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens to have Pope Benedict arrested for crimes against humanity, because of his alleged cover-up of priestly assaults on children
UK admits using DU ammunition in Iraq
UK defense secretary says American and British forces used depleted uranium (DU) ammunitions during the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
"UK forces used about 1.9 metric tons of depleted uranium ammunition in the Iraq war in 2003," UK Defense Secretary Liam Fox said in a written reply to the House of Commons on Thursday, the Kuwait News Agency reported.
The announcement came after a joint study by the environment, health and science ministries in Iraq said there were communities near the cities of Najaf, Basra and Fallujah with increased rates of cancer and birth defects over the past five years.
It's time to bring family law to book
I have never, in all my years as a journalist, felt so frustrated as I do over two deeply disturbing stories of apparent injustice that cry out to be reported but which, for legal reasons, I can refer to only in the vaguest terms. To cover them as they deserve, and as the victims so desperately wish, would challenge a part of our legal system shrouded in an almost impenetrable veil of secrecy.
Two weeks ago I recounted four examples of what I described as one of the greatest scandals in Britain today – the seizing of children by social workers from loving families, on what appears to be the flimsiest and most questionable grounds. The children may then be handed on to foster carers, who can receive up to £400 a week for each child, or are put out for adoption, in a way which too often leads to intense distress for both the parents and the children involved.
UK recession even deeper than first thought
The deepest recession in Britain's post-war history was even more severe than previously feared, the government said today.
Fresh information collected by the Office for National Statistics showed that the peak to trough decline in output was 6.4% of gross domestic product rather than the original 6.2% estimate.
The new figures confirmed that the six successive quarters of negative growth from spring 2008 until autumn 2009 were the toughest for the economy since the Great Depression of the 1930s, harsher even than the slump of the early 1980s.
July 13th, 2010
Thousands of foreign nurses will be allowed to work in Britain without any safety checks – because EU rules demand that the tests are axed.
They will not need to sit rigorous competence exams before treating NHS patients. And they will no longer even be required to show they have looked after patients in the past three years.
Critics say the change will 'almost certainly' lead to lives being lost. The Nursing and Midwifery Council will stop administering the tests in the autumn after being told it could be sued by the European Commission for breaking EU law on 'freedom of movement' for workers from the Continent.
Police were yesterday stripped of the widely abused power to stop and search innocent people in the street without any suspicion of wrongdoing.
In a signal victory for civil liberties, Home Secretary Theresa May declared that Section 44 of the Terrorism Act - recently ruled illegal by the European courts - could no longer be used against members of the public.
The decision was criticised by former Labour Home Secretary Alan Johnson, who said it would 'clearly restrict' the powers of the police to deal with potential dangermen.
Senior police are likely to complain that, with officer numbers certain to be slashed by Home Office budget cuts, this is the wrong time to make their jobs harder
The Centre for Social Cohesion has compiled profiles of 124 individuals convicted of Islamic terrorism offences since 1999.
It found that 69 per cent of offences were perpetrated by individuals holding British nationality.
Robin Simcox, co-author of the report, said their aim was to “focus the government’s counter-terrorism efforts.”
“There are clear trends emerging with those involving themselves in terrorist activity in the UK,” he added. “It is crucial that this is recognised and then acted upon by the relevant authorities.”
His comments follow private remarks by Assistant Commissioner John Yates, Britain’s most senior counter-terrorism officer, that the country faces “eye-watering cuts” in counter-terrorism funding that could hand an advantage to al-Qaeda.
Douglas Murray, Director of the Centre for Social Cohesion, said: “The report proves how great a threat violent Islamism poses to the world – and the fact that Britain is at the centre of this global struggle.”
RECORD numbers of Britons are living with cancer, according to the first ever “cancer map” of the UK.The figures show that more people are surviving after being diagnosed with cancer and the number is set to soar as survival rates improve further. There are two million people with a cancer diagnosis, according to figures from the National Cancer Intelligence Network.
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Doctors will this week call for a total ban on all homoeopathic treatment on the NHS.
Hundreds of delegates to the British Medical Association's conference are expected to support seven motions all opposed to the use of public money to pay for remedies which they claim are, at best, scientifically unproven and, at worst, ineffective.
Critics of the 200-year-old practice also want junior doctors to be exempt from working at homoeopathic hospitals because it goes against the principles of evidence-based medicine. Sugar pills and placebos have no place in a modern health service, they say, especially as the NHS must find £20bn in savings over the next few years
Illegal stop and searches could mean compensation for thousands
 Thousands of people who were unlawfully stopped and searched under controversial counter-terrorism powers could be eligible for compensation.Senior police officers are fighting hard to retain the use of section 44 stop and search powers after the Home Office admitted 14 forces had unlawfully used them in 40 operations dating back to 2001.
The home secretary, Theresa May, was angered when she discovered that a series of blunders meant the operations under the Terrorism Act 2000 had not been legally authorised, either because they exceeded the maximum legal 28-day limit in duration or had not been properly signed off by ministers within 48 hours.
A grandmother aged 95 was threatened with prosecution after putting a plastic butter tub in the wrong recycling bag.
Relatives of the woman say she was left horrified by the 'scary' legal notice, which they claim could have triggered a heart attack.
Her granddaughter, Karen Walters, 42, said: 'It is scary and ridiculous - she is a really law-abiding citizen. If she had seen the warning, she would have had a heart attack.
'But luckily her son spotted it before she saw it. The fact is that a 95-year-old was threatened with prosecution. She was horrified when she was told about it.'
The threat came from a town hall which provides its residents with no fewer than seven recycling bins and a complex set of 'rubbish rules' they must follow.
Most of the Regional Command in the South of Afghanistan will be shifted from the UK to the US, as British forces are accused of having links with the Taliban.
Based on new arrangements, British forces in the south that includes Kandahar province will be placed under American control as part of a radical restructuring plan being drawn amid a new phase of war against the Taliban.
US forces who are preparing themselves for a major strike on the Taliban in the volatile province of Kandahar are reluctant to see the British control the province.
British newspaper, The Independent, said that command in southern Afghanistan will be split in half,
Undercover Guardian investigation reveals plan by English Defence League to hit racially sensitive areas in attempt to provoke disorder over summer
MPs expressed concern tonight after it emerged that far-right activists are planning to step up their provocative street campaign by targeting some of the UK's highest-profile Muslim communities, raising fears of widespread unrest this summer.
Undercover footage shot by the Guardian reveals the English Defence League, which has staged a number of violent protests in towns and cities across the country this year, is planning to "hit" Bradford and the London borough of Tower Hamlets as it intensifies its street protests.
Senior figures in the coalition government were briefed on the threat posed by EDL marches this week. Tomorrow up to 2,000 EDL supporters are expected to descend on Newcastle for its latest protest.
MPs said the group's decision to target some of the UK's most prominent Muslim communities was a blatant attempt to provoke mayhem and disorder. "This group has no positive agenda," said the Bradford South MP, Gerry Sutcliffe. "It is an agenda of hate that is designed to divide people and communities. We support legitimate protest but this is not legitimate, it is designed to stir up trouble. The people of Bradford will want no part of it."
Superspy in the sky could soon be patrolling over ( Orwellian )British cities to search for hidden terror cells
A Top-secret US unmanned drone used to locate Al Qaeda and Taliban hideouts in Pakistan and Afghanistan could soon be patrolling over British cities to search for hidden terror cells.
The controversial move would allow MI5 and GCHQ, the Government's eavesdropping centre, to step up surveillance operations over the UK. Until now, the £23million Global Hawk aircraft has not been available for foreign sale.
However, US policy has been quietly changed and Britain is now negotiating to buy the drones. America is keen to supply them for British patrols after a string of terror plots threatening the US and its citizens
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New UK Government To Be Infested With Bankers
 No matter which parties eventually form a coalition to govern in the UK following last week’s general election, one thing is for certain – the House of Commons will be infested with bankers.
A report by the PR group The Madano Partnership, highlighted today in the London Telegraph outlines the fact that the number of MPs with a financial services background has increased two fold over the past thirteen years.
One in 10 new MPs have come from a career in investment banking, fund management, or other areas associated with the financial sector, according to the report.
The roll call of MPs includes three former directors of Barclays Bank, a former managing director of JP Morgan, and a former mergers and acquisitions banker at Goldman Sachs.
Former investment bankers and economists at Deutsche Bank, Barings, Warburg, and the previously bailed out Lloyds TSB also hold seats.
Conservative MP Jacob Rees Mogg also previously held management positions at Rothschild and Lloyd George Management in London.
With the impending push to radically reform the banking industry, these are the heavy hitters likely to be in the driving seat when it comes to forming economic policy and tabling financial legislation
To support its call for a complete ban on smoking in cars, the Royal College of Physicians claims that exposure to tobacco causes 22,000 cases of asthma in children every year. This recalls the fashion some years back among anti-smoking campaigners for blaming passive smoking for the soaring incidence of cot deaths. The only snag was that the years between 1970 and 1988, when cot deaths shot up by 500 per cent, coincided with the very time when the number of adults who smoked in Britain was falling most sharply, from 45 to 30 per cent. To anyone but a fanatical anti-smoking campaigner,
this might have suggested that "environmental tobacco smoke" was unlikely to be the chief cause of cot deaths.
 Somebody is stopped and searched by the police every 20 seconds in 'Big Brother' Britain, it was revealed last night. More than nine out of every ten of those interrogated by officers are not even subsequently arrested, let alone charged. Opposition parties say the revelation is yet more evidence of the Government's disregard for civil liberties and 'state knows best' attitude.
According to figures released by the Home Office yesterday, the use of each of the three main types of police stop and search powers is rocketing.
The statistics follow warnings that police are making unjustified stops to give the figures 'racial balance' and that suspects are being searched even though there is no evidence against them.
The biggest rise was in searches carried out because an officer believed a suspect may be about to commit an act of violence - up 182 per cent in a year, to 150,174.
David Cameron has said that a Conservative government would train a 5,000-strong "neighbourhood army" to set up community groups.
The Tory leader said in a speech this offered a "positive alternative to Labour's big government" approach.
But the BBC has learned it will be paid for with money from an existing scheme which supports voluntary organisations.
Meanwhile, Labour is promising communities more powers to take over the running of local services.
The parties are attempting to take control of the "localist" agenda ahead of the general election, which is likely to be held on 6 May.
NaturalNews) Concern is growing that the United Kingdom's Liverpool Care Pathway, intended to ease the comfort of patients whose death is inevitable, is being misused to railroad elderly patients onto a path toward early death.
"While we've been preoccupied with the moral pluses and minuses of living wills, assisted suicide and euthanasia, legalized execution of some of society's most vulnerable has become available, most probably at a hospital near you," writes Telegraph columnist Liz Hunt. "How did we let this happen?"
The Liverpool Care Pathway, which has been endorsed by the British government and adopted by 900 different hospitals and nursing homes across the country, allows a patient's care staff to remove invasive or uncomfortable medications or devices from a patient they have unanimously judged to be close to death, with no hope of recovery. Controversially, this allows medical staff to deprive patients of food or water or to sedate them continuously until they die. Recently, a group of British medical experts objected that these procedures can mask signs that a patient is actually recovering.
It has been nicknamed the flying saucepan and looks an unlikely weapon in the war against crime.
But yesterday it emerged that a suspected car thief had become the first person to be arrested in Britain thanks to the help of this miniature remote-controlled helicopter.
The Air Robot or drone was deployed by Merseyside police after officers lost the alleged offender who had escaped on foot in thick fog.
Using the device's on-board camera and thermal-imaging technology, the operator was able to pick up the suspect through his body heat and direct foot patrols to his location.
It led officers to a 16-year-old youth, who was hiding in bushes alongside the Leeds-Liverpool canal, in Litherland, Merseyside.
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