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"The End of the United Kingdom?"

Originally Posted by David Goodhart

"London, England - One of the world's most successful multinational states, and a key ally of the United States, could in a few months time start to unravel: I mean, of course, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The process will be set in motion if the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP) ends up the largest party in the Scottish parliament after elections next May. This is a distinct possibility. The break up of the UK will not be inevitable even if the SNP do dominate the parliament, but it will certainly make the political classes of Britain -- and perhaps of the U.S. and the main EU states too -- think hard about the point and value of the union to them. (Ironically, the elections will come just a matter of days after the 300th anniversary of the creation of modern Britain when the Scottish and English parliaments were merged in 1707.)

Most people in England who think about these things assumed that the "Scottish question" had been dealt with when, as one of the first acts of the Blair government elected in 1997, it announced the creation of a devolved Scottish parliament with wide ranging powers over domestic matters. But disillusionment with the performance of that parliament (and the UK parliament in London), the long-standing belief that the English "stole" Scotland's oil and gas, and the postmodern temptations of identity politics, have put independence back on the agenda (a recent opinion poll found 51 percent of Scots favoring it)."

The Isle of Man, place for which the manx cat was named, is going to hold its elections soon. This year it lowered its voting age from 18 to 16. 3T or 4T?

The following is linked/quoted for purpose of discussion and analysis only, no infringement of any sort intended.

Anglican Bishops Defend Christianity

The twist of the story is that neither is a native Briton.

"But now this country disbelieves itself in an amazing way. It almost dislikes its own culture," said Sentamu, the second most senior cleric in the Church of England and Britain's first black archbishop.

This uproar over the Russian spy who was poisoned and now the Italian spy he was eating with. Is there a saecular explanation for how freaked out everyone in Britain seems to be? Or did scandals like this happen in the cold war? I'm 1981, so I don't remember much of that.

The UK should be about where we are on the saeculum, possibly a bit behind since they still had rationing when we were in our prosperity.

However - I collect horror stories about local governments doing really petty things and I notice a lot of the ones posted on the Reason site come out of the UK. Classic: a young man adopted a cat from the local cat protection association. He got the cat its shots and everything but missed an appointment for its flea treatment ... so the cops came and took the kitty away.

Another: a local cop called the law on his next door neighbor - whose kid was playing hopschotch on the sidewalk in front of Mister Pig's house. Stuff like that.

Oh, and a Welsh firm called "Dragon Sausages" was ordered to change its name because it constituted fraud - because there was no dragon meat in the sausages, only pork.

Not just the Nanny State, but the Wicked Governess State.

P.S. Most USA horror stories stem from the War on Drugs.

Originally Posted by The Grey Badger

The UK should be about where we are on the saeculum, possibly a bit behind since they still had rationing when we were in our prosperity.

However - I collect horror stories about local governments doing really petty things and I notice a lot of the ones posted on the Reason site come out of the UK. Classic: a young man adopted a cat from the local cat protection association. He got the cat its shots and everything but missed an appointment for its flea treatment ... so the cops came and took the kitty away.

Another: a local cop called the law on his next door neighbor - whose kid was playing hopschotch on the sidewalk in front of Mister Pig's house. Stuff like that.

Oh, and a Welsh firm called "Dragon Sausages" was ordered to change its name because it constituted fraud - because there was no dragon meat in the sausages, only pork.

Not just the Nanny State, but the Wicked Governess State.

P.S. Most USA horror stories stem from the War on Drugs.

Do you have links for any of these? I have a Brit I'd love to ping with them!

Originally Posted by Linus

"The End of the United Kingdom?"

I think the Scandinavians have their eyes on Scotland. I mean Shetland and Orkney are de facto Scandinavians anyway. It's part of Sweden's evil plan to quietly put its empire back together. Look for it to peak in 2021, 300 years after it signed the Treaty of Nystad.

Originally Posted by Uzi

I think the Scandinavians have their eyes on Scotland. I mean Shetland and Orkney are de facto Scandinavians anyway. It's part of Sweden's evil plan to quietly put its empire back together. Look for it to peak in 2021, 300 years after it signed the Treaty of Nystad.

So that's why Russia is re-consolidating. The Mesabi isn't the only place on earth to be threatened by a Northern Menace

Originally Posted by Justin '77

So that's why Russia is re-consolidating. The Mesabi isn't the only place on earth to be threatened by a Northern Menace

I saw a "Nordic Enterprise" magazine issue a few years back that featured interviews with the Estonian foreign minister and Scottish businessmen!

Originally Posted by Zarathustra

Do you have links for any of these? I have a Brit I'd love to ping with them!

www.reason.com

Thank you Badger.

Take this for what it's worth, which may or may not be much.

Channel 4 To Offer Alternative Muslim 'Answer' to Queen's Speech

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/..._braces_f.html

British intelligence and law enforcement officials have passed on a grim assessment to their U.S. counterparts, "It will be a miracle if there isn't a terror attack over the holidays in London," a senior American law enforcement official tells ABCNews.com.

Because the 4T traces generations back to England, I'd love to hear from

Strauss and Howe or just about anybody if they have an idea where England

is in the Saeculum and how the next Fourth Turning would look like on their

island?

Particular Europe in general?

Originally Posted by A.LOS79

Because the 4T traces generations back to England, I'd love to hear from

Strauss and Howe or just about anybody if they have an idea where England

is in the Saeculum

Oh yah. England. Nope, no clue.

(same as us)

This story has not been played much in US news media, but it seems to be a big deal over the pond.

U.K. floods cresting but more rain likely

Some 350,000 are still without safe drinking water

The Associated Press

Updated: 12:16 p.m. ET July 24, 2007


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NEWBRIDGE, England - Swollen rivers crested Tuesday across western England, as emergency crews struggled to restore clean water, and residents piled sandbags against doors to keep floodwaters from their homes.

At least 350,000 people face the next several days without clean water, authorities said.

The River Thames crested in Oxford, but communities downstream — such as Pangbourne, Purley and Reading — were scrambling to prepare for surges late Tuesday or Wednesday.

"We wanted a riverside pub, not a pub in the river," said Stephen Parker, who with his wife worked to clean up the Maybush Pub in Newbridge, 60 miles west of London. Plates with leftover roasts still lay on the tables after Sunday customers fled when the Thames overflowed its banks.

Torrential rains have hit Britain in the past month — nearly 5 inches fell in some areas on Friday alone — and more downpours are forecast in the coming days.

Among the hardest hit areas was Tewkesbury, north of Gloucester, where rising water entered the 900-year-old abbey church for the first time since 1760.

Premature twins die

Newborn twins died in Tewkesbury after their mother, trapped by floods, went into labor at home and a paramedic could not reach them, police said, Two Royal Air Force helicopters were sent in and took the mother and children to Cheltenham Hospital, but the premature twins died.

Some 900 tanker trucks were sent to the Gloucestershire region with emergency water rations.

Gloucestershire County Council's chief executive, Peter Bungard, said flood levels at Tewkesbury would have to fall nearly 36 inches before drinking water supplies could be restored.

"The very, very best forecast is seven days," Bungard told British Broadcasting Corp. radio. "I'm really, really worried — 350,000 people is hard to imagine, and amongst those are very vulnerable people."

Some 48,000 homes lost power Monday as the River Severn flooded the Castlemeads electricity substation in Gloucester, 115 miles west of London. Power was restored overnight, police said.

At Walham substation, which serves all of Gloucestershire, frantic efforts by emergency teams kept floodwaters at bay. Fire brigades and troops from the army and navy were helping to pump water out, said Nick Windsor of the National Grid Group, which oversees the electrical system.
Britain's Environment Agency said the Severn at Gloucester crested just inches below the level that would have threatened the city center and a power station serving 500,000 homes.


Flood gates protect London

London itself is protected in the east by the Thames Barrier, the world's largest moveable flood defense, which closes to seal off part of the upper Thames from the sea. To the west, the city is protected by several defense measures including the Jubilee River, a 7-mile-long flood diversion channel.

Sir Nick Young, chief executive of the British Red Cross, said he was shocked by what he saw overnight in Gloucester and Tewkesbury, and warned people to stay out of the water.

"It was ridiculous to see young children playing in the water as if it was the beach at Blackpool," Young said. "It is unsafe water, absolutely filthy, polluted by sewage, and people really need to be advised to stay out of it."

Some residents lined up for free water at grocery stores, while others took to canoes and small boats to ferry food and water to housebound residents.

Total damages from the flooding resulting from torrential rains in June and July could cost insurers more than $6 billion, the Fitch Ratings agency said Tuesday.

Britain has had one of its wettest summers on record — a sharp contrast to last summer, which was one of its driest and hottest.


© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Originally Posted by The Wonkette

This story has not been played much in US news media, but it seems to be a big deal over the pond.

I get the BBC World Service on the local public radio station during the late-night hours (11PM-4AM) and listen to it before I go to bed, so I've been hearing about this for a few days now. The stuff happening over there is just terrible.

Oil and gas

Drying up

Production in the North Sea is falling faster than predicted

Based on the article, I predict that Peak Oil will be part of Britian's 4T.

Cherie Blair: "I fear for my children."

Also: "I consult the Tarot every morning to help me pick a vegetable to go with supper."

Britain unveils stimulus of $30B

Heavy Borrowing And Public Spending

Prime minister alludes to Great Depression


by Kevin Sullivan

"LONDON-British officials announced a $30 billion economic-stimulus package Monday that they said was needed to jump-start the British economy in the face of a looming recession....

"...the government also planned to borrow heavily to fund massive public spending on hospitals, schools, transportation and environmental projects..."

The Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, was quoted:

"'We now have a unique opportunity to do, in a 21st-century way, what was done in the 20th century by the New Deal...As they built roads and bridges to create the infrastructure for the years ahead, we can use this period of adjustment to build both the technological base and human capital to equip us for the opportunities ahead.'"

As economy dives, squatters live it up

Some homeless are living rent-free in vacant houses in posh neighborhoods thanks to Britain's dep recession and a tradition of leniency for trespassing.

by Kevin Sullivan

"LONDON-The smell of curry made from ingredients salvaged from garbage bins, filled the kitchen of a $33 million mansion in Mayfair, one of London's richest neighborhoods.

"A dozen people, mostly in their teens and 20s, chatted in the cavernous living room, wearing heavy coats in the unheated parlor lit by a single bright light.

"About 15 squatters have lived sinced late November in the grand but vacant five-story house....

"Despite local governments' efforts to discourage it, spatting appears to be on the rise...as a deep recession hits the country.

"In Britain, tresspassing is a civil offense, not a criminal one. Provided the squatters do not break a window or door to enter or otherwise damage the property, police are largely powerless to remove them.

"Landlords must petition a court for an eviction order, and they can be prosecuted if they attempt to remove the intruders by force.

"No one knows how many squatters there are across Britain, but estimates range from 4,000 to 15,000 or more. Most are evicted in a matter of days or weeks, but some occupy properties for years. If they last 10 years, the law allows them to petition a court for ownership.

"Britain's Council of Mortgage Lenders said home repossessions soared from 8,200 to about 45,000 last year and could reach 75,000 this year, creating more homeless people and more empty houses...."

In Scotland (where I live) trespassing isn't even a civil offence, it's not an offence at all and we'd never support making it one. Breaking and entering is an offence but you have the right to go on private land, and you should.

Crofters in Scotland can also force the land owners to sell them the land they farm for the cost of 10 months rent.

This comes from our history, Scotland was originally a feudal system, when a few large land owners own all the land having things like trespassing laws might lead to revolution. England is quite similar. I go rambling in the hills in the summer sometimes and occasionally camp there. The idea that the landowner could say I couldn't be there simply because they owned the land and didn't want me there is unacceptable here - that's just what happens when there is a history of very little public land and a few large land owners.

Scottish Independence won't happen now; if we'd been independent when HBOS and RBS got into trouble we wouldn't have been able to bail them out and our financial system would have melted down Icelandic style. The Scottish National Party won the Scottish Elections but only with about 33% of the vote. It's Scotland's oil is not a reason of Independence. It's Scotland's oil translates as something like: 'because oil happened to be discovered here, this generation wants to break away so we don't have to share it with everyone else in the Union'. England subsidises Scotland via the Barnett formula anyway, we would be poorer if we were independent, even with the oil.

Sweden is a social democratic nanny state, it's not imperial and won't be rebuilding it's empire any time soon. All of Scandinavia is the same. This is what prisons are like in Scandinavia, I often have to work in Norway and I promise you it's really like this http://mensnewsdaily.com/2007/09/06/...son-in-norway/ Trust me, they're not going to be empire building any time soon.

Originally Posted by The Grey Badger

The UK should be about where we are on the saeculum, possibly a bit behind since they still had rationing when we were in our prosperity.

They are.

Originally Posted by The Grey Badger

However - I collect horror stories about local governments doing really petty things and I notice a lot of the ones posted on the Reason site come out of the UK. Classic: a young man adopted a cat from the local cat protection association. He got the cat its shots and everything but missed an appointment for its flea treatment ... so the cops came and took the kitty away.

Another: a local cop called the law on his next door neighbor - whose kid was playing hopschotch on the sidewalk in front of Mister Pig's house. Stuff like that.

Oh, and a Welsh firm called "Dragon Sausages" was ordered to change its name because it constituted fraud - because there was no dragon meat in the sausages, only pork.

Not just the Nanny State, but the Wicked Governess State.

P.S. Most USA horror stories stem from the War on Drugs.

You think that's bad? How about local authority ban woman from fostering children because a Muslim girl in her care decides to convert to Christianity http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...istianity.html This sort of stuff is leading to the rise of the far right.

But what's everybody here's take on the sudden seeming return of sectarian violence to Northern Ireland?

It is just a passing fad, or is it here to stay?