Grandmother Jailed Over WWII 'Family Heirloom' Pistol

A grandmother has been jailed for five years for possessing a "family heirloom" World War II pistol.

Gail Cochrane, 53, had kept the gun for 29 years following the death of her father, who had been in the Royal Navy.

Police found the weapon, a Browning self-loading pistol, during a search of her home in Dundee while looking for her son.'

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Total Sellout: Leading Agricultural Scientist Says 'Organic' Farmers Should Plant GM Crops

A former British agricultural government advisor has said that organic farming should embrace genetically modified (GM) crops as a way to make large-scale agriculture more environmentally sustainable.

Gordon Conway, a professor of international development at Imperial College London, told the Times of London that organic agriculture focuses excessively on what is "natural." Referring to the exclusion of synthetic technologies from the definition of organic as "rigid," he said that GM technology should be used to increase crop yields while limiting ecological damage.'

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Let's give Gordon Conway his full title shall we?

Sir Gordon Conway KCMG.FRS.FRGS, Ex president of the Rockefeller Foundation, Ford Foundation and current President of the Royal  Geographical Society

Now you can see that science doesn't even come into it.

GM Public Consultation Has 'No Credibility' - Say Campaigners

The 'public dialogue' set up by Government quango the Food Standards Agency is already in disarray after the vice chairman resigned.

Professor Brian Wynne said the FSA was promoting GM 'propaganda' and incapable of carrying out an objective public consultation.

Now the Soil Association, Friends of the Earth, GM Watch and two other non-Governmental organisations have written to the FSA in support of Prof Wynne.'

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Only a Totalitarian State Disarms Law-Abiding Citizens: We Want No More Oppressive Gun Laws

You could not look for a better encapsulation of the mentality of the state-worshipping ruling elite than the claim by Sir Ian Blair, former disastrous Metropolitan Police Commissioner and newly-appointed peer (nothing succeeds like failure), writing in The Guardian on the topic of gun control: “The possession of a firearm is a privilege, not, except in a few cases, a necessity.”

Have you got that? The possession of a firearm is a “privilege”. In fact it is nothing of the sort: it is a right, guaranteed to all British subjects by the Bill of Rights of 1689. This assertion by Blair, whose police officers notoriously abused their firearms privileges by shooting dead Jean-Charles de Menezes, affords an instructive insight into the leftist/liberal belief that the state is the all-powerful authority controlling human existence. It may deign to extend privileges, such as firearm ownership, to a minority of its helots, but it does so as an act of grace, not in deference to any rights they might claim.'

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Satellite Tracking For UK Psychiatric Patients

Some of Britain’s most dangerous psychiatric patients, including murderers, rapists and paedophiles, are being fitted with satellite tracking devices to stop them escaping and reoffending.

A leading NHS trust has become the first to fit patients with an ankle bracelet containing global positioning system (GPS) technology, so they can be tracked if they abscond. The device, worn on a lockable, steel-reinforced, ankle strap, allows authorities to track a patient’s movements to within a few metres anywhere in the world.

More than 60 medium and high-risk patients detained at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust have been fitted with the device as a condition of day leave, or while they are transferred to and from hospitals.'

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Illegal Spying By Town Hall Staff Up 600%

More and more town hall bureaucrats have been caught snooping on private details held on a giant 'Big Brother' tax and benefits database.
Instances of unlawful hacking of the Customer Information System, which belongs to the Department of Work and Pensions and holds the personal records of 85 million people, have increased sixfold in a single year to more than two a week.
Council staff have looked at accounts belonging to their friends, family members, neighbours and even celebrities.

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Minister: Britain Will Open the Door to Frankenstein Food

Genetically modified crops were last night given enthusiastic backing by the Environment Secretary. Caroline Spelman shocked colleagues by suggesting that the coalition government will take a more pro-GM stance than its Labour predecessor. The Tories have traditionally taken a sceptical approach to so- called 'Frankenstein foods', and at present no GM varieties are cultivated commercially in the UK.'

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U.K. Government Now Pushing Shingles Vaccine for Elderly

A British government committee has recommended vaccinating everyone between the ages of 70 and 79 against shingles.

"I welcome the recommendation that we should look for a cost-effective vaccine," said Gillian Merron, minister for public health. "A vaccination program would be good news for those in their 70s. It would improve quality of life by offering protection against this illness".'

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British Work Until Lunch Just to Pay Taxes

Britons spend more than half of each working day earning money just to pay taxes.

Analysis relating the tax burden to the working day suggests that the average 9-5 worker takes until 1.21pm to cover their tax bill and then spends three hours 39 minutes working for themselves.'

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Children, Aged Four, 'To be Fingerprinted to Borrow School Books From Library'

Students in Manchester are having their thumbprints digitally transformed into electronic codes, which can then be recognised by a computer program.

Under the scheme, pupils swipe a bar code inside the book they want borrow then press their thumb on to a scanner to authorise the loan. Books are returned in the same way.

The scheme is being trialled on junior classes at Higher Lane Primary in Whitefield, Bury, Greater Manchester.

Officials confirmed it is due to be extended to all pupils at the school, one of the areas largest primary schools, with 453 pupils aged four to 11.

School authorities defended the scheme on Thursday, and moved to reassure parents that the voluntary system, is heavily encrypted or coded and that no images of fingerprints would be stored.

But critics said they were “appalled” at the system, developed by Microsoft which is also being trialled in other parts of the country.'

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Britain to Change International War Criminals Arrest Rule

Britain's new Foreign Secretary William Hague promises to "act speedily" to change the way arrests are ordered under international law in Britain.

"The current situation is as unsatisfactory as it is indefensible. We cannot have a position where Israeli politicians feel they cannot visit this country... and indeed this would apply to many other nations as well," said Hague on Thursday.

Currently in Britain under the Geneva Convention Act 1957, Judges can issue arrest warrants for war crimes suspects around the world without consulting public prosecutors.'

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Conservative Friends of Israel in action!!!

Pledges on Protest Rights Overshadowed by Moves Against 'Peace Camp'

A pledge to safeguard the right to protest as part of the "new politics" promised by the coalition Government will be undermined today as a legal challenge begins to remove peace protesters camping outside Parliament.

As part of a Queen's Speech that vowed to restore lost freedoms and civil liberties, David Cameron's administration said it would allow "members of the public to protest peacefully without fear of being criminalised". However, The Independent understands that No 10 was aware of a plan by Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, to use the courts to remove protesters from Parliament Square.'

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Anti-war Protester Brian Haw Arrested as Police Clear Parliament Square Ahead of Queen's Speech

Anti-war protester Brian Haw was arrested today as police carried out security sweeps ahead of the Queen's Speech. Mr Haw was seen being handcuffed by police as they cleared the area outside the Houses of Parliament before the monarch's visit this afternoon.

He and other peace campaigners have been camping there and maintaining a 24-hour peace vigil.

Police with sniffer dogs moved in this morning to search the ragtag collection of tents in what Scotland Yard said was a 'standard' security operation.

Mr Haw, who was wearing a grubby T-shirt declaring 'IRAQ 2,000,000 DEAD, 4,000,000 FLED, was allegedly trying to stop them when he was arrested.'

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Defiant Magistrate Falls Victim of PC Culture Obsession

When Austin Molloy woke up on the 13th of May and prepared for his magistrate duty at Blackburn Magistrates Court, little did he realise that he’d woken into a politically correct nightmare.

Four days later and Mr Molloy has had his position as bench chairman revoked as the Judicial Office of Communications conduct an investigation into him for his actions on that fateful Thursday.

So what heinous events of misjustice did he direct? Given that I’ve mentioned political correctness you can probably guess that it’s something that would make 99% of normal Brits (apart from self-obsessed PC generals in Whitehall) want to smash their face into their desk in despair. And you’d be right.'

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Outrage at Secret Probe Into 47,000 Innocent Air Travellers

Police secretly investigated the travel habits, family, friends and backgrounds of 47,000 innocent people last year after they bought plane tickets to fly into and out of Britain. The intrusiveness has provoked fury among civil liberties campaigners and now may be stopped by Britain’s new coalition Government.

The flyers were singled out by the ‘terrorist detector’ database, introduced by Labour, monitoring millions of British tourists and other travellers.

Checks included scrutiny of the police national computer, financial records and analysis of ‘known associates’ before people were cleared for travel.'

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VAT Should be Imposed on Food and Children's Clothes, says IMF

In an unusual intervention, the IMF said one of the best ways for the coalition Government to raise money and repair the public finances would be to remove the zero-rate that excluded a number of goods from VAT.

The recommendation came amid suspicion that the Government would also have to raise the level of the sales tax from 17.5 per cent to 20 per cent if it was to afford the tax pledges it made in its agreement earlier this week.

Although the IMF's suggestion, published in a comprehensive survey of public finances around the world, was less eye-catching than raising the headline rate, it would potentially have a greater impact on the price of goods, and on families' living standards.

The document, signed by Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the IMF's managing director, said: "There is substantial scope for improving the revenue performance of the VAT in almost all countries, including by eliminating exemptions and reduced rates."

VAT is not charged by HM Revenue and Customs on certain items, including food, children's clothes, domestic passenger transport, books and prescription drugs.'

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Why The UK Is The Next European Country To Experience A Massive Debt Crisis

Now that the Greek debt crisis has been "fixed" by a gigantic pile of more debt, many are wondering which European nation will be next to experience a massive debt crisis.

Increasingly, all eyes are turning to the U.K. and their public debt that is spiraling out of control. The U.K. government's deficit is projected to be approximately 13 percent of GDP in 2010, which is even worse than Greece's 12.5 percent figure.'

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The UK Elections: A Very British Fraud

Strong evidence of electoral fraud in recent UK elections has been reported in several outlets. This would not be the first time considering political fraud is embedded in the system. Like electronic voting machines which enable leaders in the United States to steal elections at will, the UK’s way of procuring false votes is to invent false voters, or "ghosts", all the more since no "ghostbusting" mechanisms are available.

Thursday’s election has been described as a shambles, a complete farce which shames the nation, after scenes of thousands being turned away from polling stations without being able to vote. Is this just another instance of chaotic Britain muddling along, like Dad’s Army, or is there a more sinister element of systemic fraud?'

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NHS 'Scaring Patients Into Accepting Electronic Records Database'

The agency charged with rolling out the new system is warning of "adverse consequences" if people choose to opt out of the computerised network, which has been criticised as chaotic by doctors.

It is also claiming that the NHS currently has "significant problems" with lost records.'

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Voting in Britain for War. Take Your Pick

All three party leaders are warmongers. Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrats leader and darling of former Blair lovers, says that as prime minister he will “participate” in another invasion of a “failed state” provided there is “the right equipment, the right resources”. His one condition is the standard genuflection towards a military now scandalised by a colonial cruelty of which the Baha Mousa case is but one of many.

For Clegg, as for Gordon Brown and David Cameron, the horrific weapons used by British forces, such as clusters, depleted uranium and the Hellfire missile, which sucks the air out of its victims’ lungs, do not exist. The limbs of children in trees do not exist. This year alone Britain will spend £4 billion on the war in Afghanistan, and that is what Brown and Cameron almost certainly intend to cut from the National Health Service.'

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