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Men are much more likely than women to want legalized prostitution in Britain and Canada

From a new Angus Reid Public Opinion survey:

As was observed in a Canadian study on this topic conducted last year, there are some marked gender differences in Britain. Women are more likely to call for an approach that punishes both prostitutes and “clients” (44%) than to support a move towards consensual prostitution (30%). Conversely, men are more likely to believe that nobody should be punished (49% to 33%). The notion of decriminalisation is definitely more popular with men (52%) than women (29%).

Bloomberg: "Cameron Poised to Benefit as Johnson Set for Re-Election"

London's voters couldn't have a starker choice. Livingstone is a Socialist. Johnson is a conservative with libertarian leanings. From Bloomberg:

London’s Conservative mayor, Boris Johnson, is poised to win re-election today, providing Prime Minister David Cameron with some relief after more than a month of damaging headlines.
Polls over the past week have shown Johnson extending his lead over Ken Livingstone, the former mayor who is running for the opposition Labour Party. That goes against a national trend that has seen Labour taking support away from the Conservatives. Labour is likely to gain hundreds of the 4,800 local-council seats being contested across Britain today.
Support for the Conservatives has slumped to the lowest since the coalition government came to power two years ago. . . .
The latest poll in London, carried out April 27-29, gave Johnson a lead of 56 percent to 44 percent over Livingstone in the decisive second round of counting, when second-preference votes from the five minor candidates are totted up. . . .

Hollywoods exploitation of Margaret Thatcher?

Movies UK

This article in the Daily Mail has a lot of interesting comments by a lot of people who knew Margaret Thatcher personally. I suspect that these articles are as interesting as the new movie about her is. One typical comment is given by Eve Pollard:

this invasion of the privacy of an 86-year-old-widow is truly shocking.
It reveals the most powerful woman the West has ever known as frail, feeble and lonely. But, you feel, almost against their will, director Phyllida Lloyd and screenwriter Abi Morgan (neither of whom, I suspect, would have approved of Mrs T when she was in office) couldn’t help but make an ill and powerless Margaret Thatcher sympathetic. . . .

UK's 50% Individual income tax rate causing high income people to leave the country

Taxes UK

The top 1% of income earners in the UK earn 11% of the income and pay 20% of the tax income revenue.

Top 50p tax rate damages UK, say economists

Nice discussion on how Londoners would have benefited from having a gun during the recent riots

GunControl UK

Nolan Finley has this piece in the Detroit News.

Defenders of the Second Amendment couldn't have asked for a greater gift than the spectacle of unarmed policemen and defenseless citizens standing by helplessly while rampaging hordes of youths burned London and beat up and murdered innocent residents.

Europhiles endlessly remind us of the superiority, compassion and refinement of the European social democracies.

But the anarchy that raged in England couldn't happen in America. At least not in my neighborhood, where every third house contains a hunter with a gun safe full of pistols, shotguns and rifles.

We've ceded many or our liberties to the government, but so far we've hung on to the right to defend ourselves and protect our families and homes. We pay our cops to do the same. . . .

Damage from UK riots put at $324 million

Crime Police UK

The Financial Times has this:

The interests of government and business have coincided neatly over the costs of riot damage, estimated at more than £200m ($324m). David Cameron dispelled widespread doubts that taxpayers would foot the bill in a well-judged speech on Thursday.

Without state support, many independent retailers would have gone bust. Some big chains would have shied away from the poor districts seen as the centres of telly-grabbing criminality. Burnt-out shops would have damaged footfall. Insurers would have jacked up premiums in neighbourhoods such as Tottenham, deterring reinvestment.

Cameron does have an interesting approach to who will pay. Given that he blames the police for sitting back initially and watching the looting, he is take the money to pay for this damage out of the police budget. Do you think that the police will delay action next time?

The prime minister confirmed that police budgets would take the hit. Rightly so. The constabulary’s initial tolerance of looting encouraged the mayhem to mushroom. . . .

When you wish that you had a gun to protect you?: Riots spread through out UK Cities

Crime GunControl UK

When the police aren't present what should people do to protect themselves and their property? In the UK, the answer is nothing. From Fox News:

A wave of violence and looting raged across London and spread to three other major British cities on Tuesday, as authorities struggled to contain the country's worst unrest since race riots set the capital ablaze in the 1980s.

In London, groups of young people rampaged for a third straight night, setting buildings, vehicles and garbage dumps alight, looting stores and pelting police officers with bottles and fireworks. The spreading disorder was an unwelcome view of London's volatility for leaders organizing the 2012 Summer Olympics in less than a year.

Police called in hundreds of reinforcements -- and made a rare decision to deploy armored vehicles in some of the worst-hit districts -- but still struggled to keep pace with the chaos unfolding at flashpoints across London, in the central city of Birmingham, the western city of Bristol and the northwestern city of Liverpool. . . .

If 1900, twenty year before the UK had really any gun control laws, there were only two gun murders and 5 armed robberies. That in a city of 6 million people where gun ownership was extremely common.

The debate over the death penalty is being picked up again in the UK

DeathPenalty UK

Dr Tim Stanley, a research fellow in American History at Royal Holloway College, has a piece in the UK Telegraph. Among his points:

Opponents will point out that the death penalty is practiced in the states with the highest murder rates. This is true, but it doesn’t mean that executions don’t work – it just means that they take place where they are needed most. The states without the death penalty historically have lower than average levels of crime. When the death penalty was suspended nationwide from 1968 to 1976, murder rates went through the roof – except in those states. When the ban was lifted, the states that reintroduced the death penalty saw an astonishing 38 per cent fall in their murder rate over twenty years. Indeed, there is a statistical relationship between the growth in executions and the decline in murder. According to John Lott, author of Freedomnomics, “between 1991 and 2000, there were 9,114 fewer murders per year, while the number of executions per year rose by 71.” In his own studies, the only exception to this rule proved to be multiple victim public shootings, like the Virginia Tech Massacre. The reason is obvious: the perpetrators expect to die while carrying out their crime and invariably do. . . .

It is nice to see that Freedomnomics is getting some attention in the UK.

What happens if you act defensively in the UK

A shopkeeper in the Old Trafford area stabbed a robber to death. The shopkeeper was "confronted by a group of masked men, one of whom had a machete." Originally, this was the decision:

Last week, the Crown Prosecution Service said Flanagan, 59, would not face charges because he had used reasonable force and had acted in self-defense.

Now he has been arrested:

A shopkeeper has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a man trying to rob his shop was stabbed to death.

Police were called to the shop, in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, at about 9.40pm on Tuesday after reports that a man had been injured. It is understood a number of men had attempted to rob the shopkeeper.

The injured man was taken to hospital with a stab wound, and died a short time later.

Police sources said a 72-year-old man, understood to be the shopkeeper, was arrested. He has not been identified.

A spokesman for Greater Manchester police said: "A 30-year-old man with serious injuries was taken to hospital, but he died a short time later. A 72-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder."

Chief Superintendent Mark Roberts added: "The investigation is in its early stages, and we are still trying to establish the circumstances of what has happened. . . .

The UK cuts Corporate Income Tax from 28 to 23 percent

Taxes UK

With the US corporate tax rate at 40 percent and a UK rate at just 23 percent, where would you want to invest your money?

Mr Osborne also announced that corporation tax would be cut by 2 per cent, more than the 1 per cent reduction which was already scheduled, with further 1 per cent falls in coming years.
Funded by an extension of the banking levy, the tax will eventually be slashed to 23% from its current rate of 28%. . . .

British Police told that it is too dangerous to go to playgrounds at night

Crime Police UK

From the UK Mail:

In the line of duty, police officers routinely risk life and limb in all sorts of dangerous situations to protect and serve.
So patrolling an area plagued by teenage yobs should be child’s play by comparison.
But constables and PCSOs have been banned from keeping the peace at an adventure playground at night because it is considered dark and dangerous.
A senior officer told stunned councillors there would be no patrols after 8pm at newly-built Waterlees Park in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, for health and safety reasons. . . .

UK's "WINTER MAY BE COLDEST IN 1000 YEARS"

GlobalWarming UK

From the UK:

BRITAIN’S winter is the coldest since 1683 and close to being the chilliest in nearly 1,000 years.

Latest figures reveal that the average temperature since December 1 has been a perishing -1C.

That makes it the second coldest since records began in 1659.

The chilliest on record was 1683/84, when the average was -1.17C and the River Thames froze over for two months.

But with January and February to come, experts believe we could suffer the most freezing cold winter in the last 1,000 years.

The Met Office’s Charlie Powell said: “It’s rare to have cold this prolonged, with temperatures falling incredibly low.

“Temperatures will be down again by Sunday, with nights below freezing and daytimes below average at 3C to 5C. Our outlook forecast to January 26 shows temperatures 2C or 3C below average, frost and ice likely and the highest chance of snow or sleet over the northern half of the UK.” . . .

The NY Times recently had an opinion piece blasting those who question global warming as basically idiots. Here is a letter to the editor that I sent in. Of course, the NY Times didn't publish it. This is short to meet the 150 word limit for letters.

Dear Letters Editor:

In the face the coldest December in Britain and other countries since records began, Roger Cohen attacks those criticizing Global Warming as making exaggerated claims ("Snow! Hit the Panic Button," 12/23). Cohen's claims: "global warming, which some people, including Matthews, apparently took to mean the end of European winters, and you end up with the current farce." But he should look at the predictions made by manmade Global Warming advocates. On March 20, 2000, The Independent newspaper in the UK quotes Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia, asserting that within a few years winter snowfall will become "a very rare and exciting event. Children just aren't going to know what snow is." Unfortunately, many other manmade Global Warming researchers made this hysterical claim. This month a UK Daily Mail headline reports: "Coldest December since records began."

Sincerely,

UK government ties work directly to welfare benefits

UK unemployment welfare

The British are clearly going in the opposite direction from us.

The government unveiled a radical shake-up of the welfare state Thursday, saying it would withhold benefit payments for up to three years from those who refuse to take jobs.
Prime Minister David Cameron's government wants to introduce a sliding scale of penalties for those who either decline a job offer, fail to apply for a job they are advised to or do not turn up for mandatory four-week work placements.
The weekly 65 pound unemployment benefit will be withheld for three months from those who violate any of the three conditions.
That would rise to six months for a second violation and three years for a third, aides said.
The announcement came as Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith prepared to give details of the universal credit, a single welfare payment which officials say will simplify the current complex benefits system and make two and a half million people better off.
Cameron's coalition government, which took power in May, describes the plans as the most radical since the wide-ranging welfare state was put in place just after World War II.
Welfare now accounts for roughly a third of government spending. . . .

The UK as latest test for Keynesian Economics

Economy stimulus UK

With up to a 500,000 cut in the number of government jobs and a big cut in government spending, my guess is that the UK will be better off. The opposite of what Obama has proposed on spending. I only wish that they weren't increasing tax rates.

Chancellor George Osborne has unveiled the biggest UK spending cuts since World War II, with welfare, councils and police budgets all hit.

The pension age will rise sooner than expected, some incapacity benefits will be time limited and other money clawed back through changes to tax credits and housing benefit.

A new bank levy will also be brought in - with full details due on Thursday.

Mr Osborne said the four year cuts were guided by fairness, reform and growth.

But shadow chancellor Alan Johnson, for Labour, called the review a "reckless gamble with people's livelihoods" which risked "stifling the fragile recovery" - a message echoed by the SNP, despite smaller than expected cuts in Scotland.

Mr Osborne ended his hour-long Commons statement by claiming the 19% average cuts to departmental budgets were less severe than expected. This is thanks to an extra £7bn in savings from the welfare budget and a £3.5bn increase in public sector employee pension contributions. . . .

The Financial Times puts things in perspective:

The sweeping cuts in spending and entitlements far exceed anything contemplated in the US where Barack Obama, the president, has proposed only a three-year freeze on discretionary spending and Congress is still debating whether to extend tax cuts for the wealthy.

The UK cuts of £81bn ($128bn) over four years are the equivalent of 4.5 per cent of projected 2014-15 gross domestic product. Similar cuts in the US would require a cut in public spending of about $650bn, equal to the projected cost of Medicare in 2015

The UK deficit is about 10 per cent of 2010-11 GDP. The US deficit was $1,294bn, or 8.9 per cent of GDP, in the 2010 fiscal year.

Declaring that “today is the day where Britain steps back from the brink”, George Osborne, the chancellor of the exchequer, revealed dramatic reductions to core departments over the next four years, a £7bn fall in welfare support and 490,000 public-sector job cuts by 2014-15.

“Tackling the budget deficit is unavoidable,” Mr Osborne told parliament. “To back down now and abandon our plans would be the road to economic ruin.” . . .

Local government will suffer more than most with reductions of nearly 30 per cent by 2015. The police force will see its budget trimmed by 16 per cent.

Two areas – the £4.6bn science budget and overseas aid, which will reach 0.7 per cent of GDP by 2013 – were protected. . . .

The video at the FT has the former Labour chancellor of the exchequer takes the Keynesian line about "taking money out of the economy." He keeps talking about a "strategy for growth," which just means spending more money on the government programs, where the government decides what the best investments are.

500 pages of rules on teachers being able to touch students in the UK?

education UK

The UK is getting a little bit of sanity.

“At the moment if you want to become au fait with what this department thinks on how to keep order in class you have to read the equivalent of War And Peace,” he said.
“There is about 500 pages of guidance on discipline and another 500 pages on bullying. We will clarify and shrink that.
“Teachers worry that if they assert a degree of discipline, one determined maverick pupil will say, ’I know my rights’ and so teachers become reticent about asserting themselves,” he said in an interview with today’s Guardian. . . .

The Murder Rate in England and Wales after the handgun ban

gunban UK

Some examples of the impact of gun bans on murder rates

gunban GunFreeZone Ireland Jamaica UK

So what happened to murder rates in island nations? These figures are from the third edition of More Guns, Less Crime from the University of Chicago Press (2010). Click to make the figures larger. The numbers for the UK are available here in Table 1.01.

British telling Obama to cool the political attacks on BP

ObamaDishonest UK

Someone is calling Obama on his rhetoric.

Senior Tories today warned Barack Obama to back off as billions of pounds were wiped off BP shares in the row over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Mayor Boris Johnson demanded an end to “anti-British rhetoric, buck-passing and name-calling” after days of scathing criticism directed at BP by the President and other US politicians.

Former Conservative Party chairman Lord Tebbit branded Mr Obama's conduct “despicable”. And with the dispute threatening to escalate into a diplomatic row, Mr Johnson also appeared to suggest that David Cameron should step in to defend BP.

He spoke as the US onslaught against the firm became a “matter of national concern” — especially given its importance to British pensions, which lost much of their value today as BP shares plunged to a 13-year low.

Asked on BBC Radio 4's Today whether he thought the Prime Minister should intervene, Mr Johnson said: “Well I do think there is something slightly worrying about the anti-British rhetoric that seems to be permeating from America. Yes I suppose that's right.

I would like to see cool heads and a bit of calm reflection about how to deal with this problem rather than endlessly buck-passing and name-calling.

“When you consider the huge exposure of British pension funds to BP and its share price, and the vital importance of BP, then I do think it starts to become a matter of national concern if a great UK company is being continually beaten up on the international airwaves.

“OK, it has presided over a catastrophic accident which it is trying to remedy but ultimately it cannot be faulted because it was an accident that took place. BP, I think is paying a very, very heavy price indeed.” . . .

British woman in trouble with police for waving a knife at two peeping Toms who had broken into her garage and were looking into a widow of her home

Selfdefense UK

The BBC has this discussion, but the radio interview that they have available has significantly more information.

Television presenter, Myleene Klass, has criticised the law after being spoken to by police for waving a knife at two people who had peered through a window at her home.
The former pop star was at home with her young daughter when she spotted the teenagers and she grabbed a knife and in an effort to get them to leave.
Klass said the law is "ridiculous" stressing that everyone should have the right to protect their family and property at "any lengths possible".

Another BBC piece is here, though it also doesn't go into quite the detail of her radio interview.

The former pop star was in the kitchen when she spotted the teenagers and grabbed a knife and banged the windows in an effort to get them to leave.
She says Hertfordshire Police officers told her that brandishing an "offensive weapon" was illegal.
But a police spokeswoman said that "at no point" were any warnings given.
The 31-year-old was at her Potters Bar home on Friday with her daughter upstairs when she spotted the youths peering into the house.
Klass said: "It was a scary incident but I've got no regrets as to how I reacted. I think I did what any other mother would do.
"This is my house and that's my daughter up there and I will do anything to protect my daughter and my family. That's what I did."
The star was speaking at the launch of new ITV1 series Popstar To Operastar - which features former chart stars as they try to make it as classical singers.
'Utmost respect'
Klass's spokesman, Jonathan Shalit, told the Sunday Telegraph the singer had been "utterly terrified" and was stepping up security at her home.
"Myleene was aghast when she was told that the law did not allow her to defend herself at home," he said.
"All she did was scream loudly and wave the knife to try and frighten them off.
"She is not looking to be a vigilante, and has the utmost respect for the law, but when the police explained to her that even if you're at home alone and you have an intruder, you are not allowed to protect yourself, she was bemused." . . .

Self defense in the UK