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United Kingdom: The new mini: Ideal for a quiet spin to the shops

Guardian: Press the starter button underneath the steering wheel, and the only way you'd know the Mini E is ready for action is the lights winking on the dashboard. Even as it begins to move, the experience is eerily silent, like coasting down a hill. On the road the Mini E is a quick mover, and its tight steering keeps it nimble in traffic. BMW claims the car should handle like a normal Mini, despite being 20% heavier, and it certainly accelerates like one: put your foot down and you'll be ...

Radical preacher Abu Qatada sent back to prison as judges rule on secret evidence

Radical Islamist cleric Abu Qatada yesterday had his bail revoked and was returned to indefinite detention in a maximum security prison pending the outcome of a legal battle over his deportation to Jordan.The Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac), in effect Britain's national security court, ruled that evidence from the security services, heard in secret, had convinced them there was now an increased risk of Qatada absconding.Qatada, described by a Spanish judge as Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe, was released on bail in June to live with his family in west London under a 22-hour curfew after the court of appeal ruled it was unsafe to return him to Jordan.The preacher has spent three and half years in maximum security jails since he was first declared a risk to national security in January 2001 on the grounds that he encouraged other extremists to commit acts of terrorism by providing religious sanction for them.The immigration judges said their decision to revoke his bail was based on the evidence they had heard in secret: "The secretary of state relies on information contained in the closed case to justify the revocation of bail." This remains confidential and is only spelled out in a separate "closed" unpublished judgment.The "open" version published yesterday said none of the reasons put forward by the Home Office in the public sessions of the commission's two-day hearing would justify the revocation of his bail. These included the seizure at his home of memory cards, MP3 players, computer discs and videotapes.They also rejected security service arguments that the publication of a message from a senior al-Qaida figure on a website in July, appealing to religious scholars to return to the "battlefield", and the pending government appeal to the House of Lords against the decision not to deport him also increased the risk of him absconding. The judges said it has been a long-standing assessment of the security services that Qatada, also known as Mohammad Othman, is a senior religious extremist with links to al-Qaida and these factors in themselves did not justify revoking bail.Before the Siac hearing it had been reported that Qatada was trying to flee the country but Mr Justice Mitting, sitting with two other judges, said the cleric's declared interest in renouncing Jordanian citizenship and attempting to go to the country of his birth, Palestine, did not amount to a breach of bail. They said they did not regard as significant the fact he had not formally notified the Home Office of attempts on his behalf to find a third country, other than Jordan, willing to take him. "If the appellant identifies a state or territory willing to receive him, and seeks to put into effect his declared wish to go there, he will be fulfilling the obligation imposed on him by the deportation order to depart the United Kingdom ... We do not, however, see any realistic prospect that either of these two possibilities will be open to him in the near or medium term," they added.During the hearing Qatada's barrister, Edward Fitzgerald QC, said his lawyer, Gareth Peirce, and writer Victoria Brittain had been involved in the initial attempts to find a country willing to take him.The home secretary, Jacqui Smith, said she was pleased Qatada's bail had been revoked: "He poses a significant threat to our national security and I am pleased that he will be detained pending his deportation, which I'm working hard to secure." Qatada was in Belmarsh prison in east London last night but is expected to be moved to Long Lartin maximum securityUK security and terrorismAl-QaidaOsama bin LadenJordanGlobal terrorismguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Full taxraising powers ruled out by review of Scottish devolution

Transferring all taxraising powers to Scotland has been ruled out by an official review of devolution because it is incompatible with being part of the United Kingdom.

Prince Charles Criticizes Poor English Grammar In The U.K. (AHN)

(AHN) - Britain's Prince Charles has criticized the poor standards of English grammar in the United Kingdom. The prince insisted people need to concentrate on using apostrophes properly and constructing sentences correctly. - Thu, 27 Nov 2008 06:16:57 GMT

Partition in Scotland

From the GuardianI would not lose any sleep if the Scots voted to repeal the 1707 act. Independence need not end the United Kingdom: Scotland and England shared a monarch before 1707, as Britain and Canada do today. Separation need be no more radical than the partial autonomy of a dozen European countries from their neighbours. Borders were not sealed or passports cancelled under the Government of Ireland Act 1920. If eastern Europe can handle partition, so can Britain.The phased withdrawal of the subvention would be traumatic, but it would do Scotland nothing but good to learn that public money does not grow on English trees. If economic history teaches anything, it is that huge inflows of aid rot an economy, while "unearned" wealth, as from oil, is usually wasted. The phased end of the subsidy would be thoroughly good for Scotland, not bad.Partition is the new politics, despite being the hobgoblin of centralism. It is through partition that Ireland is booming, Slovakia reviving and the Baltic states prospering. The British government is in favour of it for everyone else, even forcing it on the former Yugoslavia and Iraq/Kurdistan. This year it welcomed Montenegro to Europe's community. By what hypocrisy do Westminster grandees ridicule Scotland's ambition?Big federal states were fine when governments were small and unobtrusive. Today's governments are elephantine and unresponsive to local sentiment. That is why Spain, France and Italy have all opted for constitutional devolution in the past two decades, fending off separatist pressure. Anti-federalism is why European public opinion revolted against Brussels last year, and why there is no more talk of a Scandinavian union. As for size being crucial to viability, this is corporatist rubbish. If Denmark is viable, why not Scotland?All such considerations must anyway bow before self-determination. If the Scots want to repeal the 1707 act (as some Britons want to repeal the European Union's treaties), the British cannot deny it. The story of the past quarter-century is that states enjoy no legitimacy without the consent of their territorial minorities. Britain went to war for this principle in Kosovo.

A Deaf Man and an Interpreter Recognized for Accomplishments

In the United Kingdom, a deaf man who set up a business to provide British Sign Language interpreters online has received the Stelios Award for Disabled Entrepreneurs. Andrew Thomson, the...

United Kingdom: Testing times for Lord Turner who is juggling financial crisis and climate change

Guardian: It is hard to think of anybody who has a busier diary at the moment than Lord Turner of Ecchinswell, who has found himself advising the government on how to save both capitalism and, between meetings, the planet from climate change. Turner became chairman of the Financial Services Authority in September, on a weekend sandwiched between the collapses of global investment bank Lehman Brothers and UK mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley. Between meetings about the crisis in the ...

United Kingdom: 'Go greener' call to schools, jails and hospitals

Guardian: Ed Miliband has used his first speech as climate change and energy secretary to call on prisons, schools and hospitals to generate more renewable energy. Speaking to the Environment Agency yesterday, Miliband said the public sector, which accounts for 10% of land in the UK, should be contributing more than the 1% of renewable energy it now generates. Miliband also called on the environment movement to put more pressure on his department in the run-up to international climate ...

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