Thread: What the F*** is goin on in the UK

Originally Posted by Ivor Biggun

Forgive my ignorance but explain the first amendment.

First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects freedom of speech (expression) among other things. Generally applied to political speech but can be used for commercial speech in many cases. Such as placing "for sale" signs on your private property.

First Amendment to the United States Constitution - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

^it is also legal to piss behing the left wheel of a car if there is no open public toilet within 1 square mile of you.

The UK has some strange laws

Originally Posted by Ivor Biggun

but you cannot place a for sale sign on the highway

Originally Posted by peterpan

I was parked legally but I was penalised for advertising my car for sale.

This what I don't get. It was in his parking space, not on the highway.

^
I think you'll find it was a public parking spot on the street.

I believe the laws were brought in to stop private sellers from selling multiple cars outside their homes to the annoyance of the neighbours who couldn't park.

Throwing the baby out with the bath water. Dumb laws.

Here's a good idea.

Sharia law SHOULD be used in Britain, says UK's top judge


By Steve Doughty
Last updated at 2:12 AM on 04th July 2008

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Explosive: The Lord Chief Justice's endorsement of Sharia law has already created huge controversy

The most senior judge in England yesterday gave his blessing to the use of sharia law to resolve disputes among Muslims.
Lord Chief Justice Lord Phillips said that Islamic legal principles could be employed to deal with family and marital arguments and to regulate finance.
He declared: 'Those entering into a contractual agreement can agree that the agreement shall be governed by a law other than English law.'
In his speech at an East London mosque, Lord Phillips signalled approval of sharia principles as long as punishments - and divorce rulings - complied with the law of the land.
But his remarks, which back the informal sharia courts operated by numerous mosques, provoked a barrage of criticism.
Lawyers warned that family and marital disputes settled by sharia could disadvantage women or the vulnerable.
Tories said that legal equality must be respected and that rulings incompatible with English law should never be enforceable.
Lord Phillips spoke five months after Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams suggested Islamic law could govern marital law, financial transactions and arbitration in disputes.
The Lord Chief Justice said yesterday of the Archbishop's views: 'It was not very radical to advocate embracing sharia law in the context of family disputes'.
He added there is 'widespread misunderstanding as to the nature of sharia law'.
The Sharia Council of Britain: (from right to left) Dr Suhaib Hasan, Maulana Abu Sayeed and Mr Mufti Barabatullah preside over marriage cases at their headquarters earlier this year
Under fire: The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams. His comments on Sharia sparked a political storm
Lord Phillips said: 'Those who are in dispute are free to subject it to mediation or to agree that it shall be resolved by a chosen arbitrator. There is no reason why principles of sharia law or any other religious code should not be the basis for mediation or other forms of dispute resolution.'
Lord Phillips said that any sanctions must be 'drawn from the laws of England and Wales'. Severe physical punishment - he mentioned stoning, flogging or amputating hands - is 'out of the question' in Britain, he added.
Lord Phillips' speech brought protests from lawyers who fear women could be disadvantaged in supposedly voluntary sharia deals.
Barrister and human rights specialist John Cooper said: 'There should be one law by which everyone is held to account.
'Well-crafted laws in this country, drawn up to protect both parties including the weak and vulnerable party in matrimonial break-ups, could be compromised.'
Resolution, the organisation of family law solicitors, said people should govern their lives in accordance with religious principles 'provided that those beliefs and traditions do not contradict the fundamental principle of equality on which Britain's laws are based.'
Spokesman Teresa Richardson said religious law 'must be used to find solutions which are consistent with the basic principles of family law in this country and people must always have redress to the civil courts where they so choose.'



Robert Whelan, of the Civitas think tank, said: 'Everybody is governed by English law and it is not possible to sign away your legal rights. That is why guarantees on consumer products always have to tell customers their statutory rights are not affected. 'There is not much doubt that in traditional Islamic communities women do not enjoy the freedoms that they have had for 100 years or more in Britain.


Shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve said: 'Mediation verdicts which are incompatible with our own legal principles should never be enforceable. One of the key aspects of our free society is equality. This should be understood and respected by all.'
The Ministry of Justice said: 'English law takes precedence over any other legal system. The Government has no intention of changing this position. Alongside this, it is possible to resolve civil law dispute by other systems.'

Sharia law SHOULD be used in Britain, says UK's top judge | Mail Online

British girls as young as 14 are being trafficked for sex within the UK




Targets: British-born girls as young as 14 are being trafficked for sex within the UK (file picture)


British girls as young as 12 are being forced into prostitution by migrants in a new crime of 'internal' people trafficking.

Children from ordinary families are groomed by older men posing as boyfriends before being pimped around the UK to have sex up to 20 times a night.
They are raped and often drugged, according to police.
Officers have identified 'syndicates of Iraqi men throughout the UK' behind the exploitation.

A Government report said 'internal trafficking' was an 'emerging issue' and it should no longer be assumed young victims of sex exploitation were smuggled from abroad.

A UK Human Trafficking Centre intelligence report says girls as young as 12 are taken from town to town and controlled with threats and assault.

In one operation, 32 victims were identified in the Sheffield area alone. All were aged 12 to 15 and had been raped.
In another study, police say girls 'are given to a life of exploitation, waking up in anonymous towns, unable to contact family and with no way out'.
Figures released at the end of a six-month crackdown on people traffickers showed 167 victims were rescued across Britain and Ireland and 528 suspected traffickers were arrested.
It included 13 children aged between 14 and 17 who were rescued from sexual exploitation and two children who were under forced labour.
Home Office minister Vernon Coaker said it was difficult to establish the scale of the problem with internal trafficking.
'It is something that increasingly people are raising and we are trying to get a better understanding of what exactly is taking place,' he said.
'It is difficult for us to determine what the size of that problem is but it's something we are aware of and we have concerns about.'
The minister said it tended to involve older men grooming younger women and girls by first appearing to be a friend or boyfriend.
He said the officers had adopted the term 'lover boy' to denote the use of such techniques.
'There is no evidence that this involves children who have gone missing from care,' the minister went on. It is people living in an area and people groom them, get their trust and then betray that trust.'
Gloucestershire Chief Constable Dr Tim Brain, who coordinated the major trafficking crackdown known as Operation Pentameter Two, said it had revealed a large number of brothels in apparently ordinary suburban locations.
Out of more than 800 premises visited by this campaign, nearly 600 were residential and 157 were massage parlours, saunas and nail bars, which are the more traditional 'front' for brothels.
'It is impossible to say at this stage whether this is a shift in behaviour,' Dr Brain said.
It is likely that in future police investigations will have to consider all kinds of premises.
'In some of the cases the neighbours who live nearby have not actually suspected any kind of unusual activity.'
Latest estimates by police are that there may be as many 18,000 trafficked victims that are forced to work as prostitutes, Dr Brain went on.
The projections varied considerably and could be between 6,000 and 18,000, he added.
So far Operation Pentameter Two has led to 24 convictions for a range of offences.
The first phase of Pentameter in 2006 rescued 88 victims and made 232 arrests.
Dr Brain said: 'The increase in arrests is good news in terms of police and partner agency effectiveness but it does mean that we still have an insidious problem in the heart of our society.'
Mr Coaker announced that the Government plans to grant a 45-day period of grace to victims of human trafficking after their rescue, even if they are in the country illegally.
The Home Office had already pledged to ratify a European agreement to give a period of 30 days.

British girls as young as 14 are being trafficked for sex within the UK| News | This is London

National Audit Office rejects Treasury accounts

Dramatic collapse in department’s morale

Britain’s spending watchdog is refusing to approve the Treasury’s accounts, compounding a miserable year for Alistair Darling, the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Senior officials spoke last night of a collapse of morale at the Treasury after a string of U-turns and interference by No 10. In another blow to Mr Darling’s independence, Gordon Brown has asked him to carry out a review of green taxation to pave the way for further climbdowns on road tax and fuel duty this autumn.

“We are working very closely with the NAO to ensure the issues that arise as a result of Northern Rock are properly dealt with in our accounts but we still intend to publish them before the summer recess,” he said.

Treasury officials now face questions from MPs over the delay. Michael Fallon, the chairman of the Treasury Scrutiny Committee, said: “This is a fresh humiliation for Alistair Darling. He has lost control over public finances. Now it looks as if he can’t get his department’s books past the auditors.”

A senior Treasury figure spoke of a “crisis of identity” within what was once Whitehall’s most powerful department. “It is a depressing place to work,” he added.

Mr Darling is fighting a bruising battle with the National Audit Office (NAO), which is unhappy at the way that the nationalisation of Northern Rock is being treated in the Treasury’s books. The annual report from No 11 was published yesterday but, in a highly unusual departure from normal procedure, without the department’s resource accounts.

A Treasury spokesman confirmed the delay but denied that the spending watchdog had threatened to qualify its accounts. The books must be published before the parliamentary recess in three weeks’ time.

From:

National Audit Office rejects Treasury accounts - Times Online

Originally Posted by cujo

Sharia law SHOULD be used in Britain, says UK's top judge

Very presumptuous of him to assume Scotland would also adopt the usage of Sharia Law having a completely separate legal system.

We thank him for his suggestion though.

Originally Posted by cujo

Robert Whelan, of the Civitas think tank, said: 'Everybody is governed by English law and it is not possible to sign away your legal rights.

No, we are not.

^You're a law unto yourself!

^
Scotland's a province of England isn't it, governed by the English, like Ireland.

Originally Posted by EmperorTud

Very presumptuous of him to assume Scotland would also adopt the usage of Sharia Law having a completely separate legal system.

We thank him for his suggestion though.

Originally Posted by cujo

Robert Whelan, of the Civitas think tank, said: 'Everybody is governed by English law and it is not possible to sign away your legal rights.

No, we are not.

You'll bloody well do as the English tell you thank you very much. No more complaints from the cheap seats.

I read the above quoted articles this morning.

MEDIA HYPE !!!!!

Read them carefully and the Sharia law thing is a nonsense and the "English girls trafficked" pure sensationalism.

Originally Posted by jandajoy

I read the above quoted articles this morning.

MEDIA HYPE !!!!!

Read them carefully and the Sharia law thing is a nonsense and the "English girls trafficked" pure sensationalism.

You know this how? You investigated these things yourself?

Originally Posted by cujo

Originally Posted by jandajoy

I read the above quoted articles this morning.

MEDIA HYPE !!!!!

Read them carefully and the Sharia law thing is a nonsense and the "English girls trafficked" pure sensationalism.

You know this how? You investigated these things yourself?

Firstly, I read them this morning. I read them again a second time as I was interested.
I looked at the words. Put them together into sentences and then paragraphs. Having achieved a reasonably satisfactory understanding of the literature I then dded a healthy dose of cynicism, a spot of common sense and a load of contemt for the modern media. Particularly the UK press.

Mix it all together and come out with a subjective view point.

UK gets its first 'Ghost Tower' a la Bangkok!

Credit crunch halts work on high-rise flats

Jul 4 2008 Tim Lewis, South Wales Echo

WORK has come to a halt at one of Cardiff’s new luxury apartment developments, sparking fears the project has been mothballed.

Six storeys of a 17-storey apartment block have been built but work has stopped after a buyer pulled out.

It is believed a single buyer had planned to buy a large number of the apartments but problems with the housing market caused by the credit crunch have forced them to rethink.

Continued at:

Credit crunch halts work on high-rise flats - WalesOnline

a ridiculous immigration policy over the last few years has only enhanced the problems of this already over-crowded isle.

what a disgrace that the short sighted right-wing liberals have let in unlimited hordes of desperados (from the new EU countries) to overheat the economy and thus result in the current devestation of recession , unemployment (for locals) and wage decreases.

The only ones benefiting long term from this are the Poles etc.. who have saved enough cash to go back home and buy their own land or property and still be eligible for UK 'benefits' - can't quite see that happening the other way round. Imagine working in Warsaw (for example) clearing tables for 5 years and then going back to the UK and buying a small place in the countryside - I don't think so!

Originally Posted by colourful-era

right-wing liberals

Are they like the opposition party to the left-wing conservatives or sumfing?

Originally Posted by colourful-era

Tony Blair, Hilary Clinton and their ilk are close to right-wing liberal status. - but you , I think , may fit the description well (or do you need a 'source' for that one?)

Well political labels are an inherently flawed idea at the best of times. Much less applying one to someone that you only 'know' through an anonymous internet forum. It may be convenient to think that with one stroke of the pen (so to speak) you can nicely pigeon-hole a persons entire political beliefs system but it's a fallacy really, innit.

anyway, I thought you'd left this place for greener pastures.

So did I.

Libertarian conservatism

And your point is... ? That has nothing to do with "right-wing liberals".

Ok, I was only applying it to you for fun so don't get too worked up about that one.

'right-wing liberal' is a convenient lay-man's term to describe Libertarian Conservatism or other such similar ideologies.

Originally Posted by colourful-era

'right-wing liberal' is a convenient lay-man's term

...actually sounds like a contradiction in terms. But in the US we may have different meanings than the UK. Liberal=Left wing and Conservative=Right wing. A right wing liberal is like saying hot ice water or a black piece of white paper.

Well you can have hot ice water - here in Cambodia in many of the local restaurants they give you a glass of ice into which you pour hot tea - so for a short period you do in fact have a type of 'hot ice-water'.

But being a right-wing liberal is nothing new whatsoever.

You would have strong liberal tendencies with a good measure of right-wing capitalism thrown in, but basically you would be conservative.
Possibly the Clintons of this world belong in such a group.