Hysterical British PM: Only 50 Days to Save the World From Mythical Global Warming

This clown makes Al Gore seem lucid by comparison. Usually these idiots make up some date far in the future, often about 50 years, since by that time their stupidity will have been long forgotten or they'll just make up some other catastrophic scenario.

Seriously, though, the UK has only 50 days left?

The UK faces a "catastrophe" of floods, droughts and killer heatwaves if world leaders fail to agree a deal on climate change, the prime minister has warned.

Gordon Brown said negotiators had 50 days to save the world from global warming and break the "impasse".

He told the Major Economies Forum in London, which brings together 17 of the world's biggest greenhouse gas-emitting countries, there was "no plan B".

Maybe Brown should pay a visit to the USA, where we've been having record cold for mid-October. On the other hand, stay where you are, Mr. Brown. We have enough idiots in our Congress and Senate promoting this drivel.

Hot Air links Thanks!

'It’s An Idiot’s Guide To Applying Heavy Make-up'

Maybe he should just try some Botox. Doesn't seem as if these make-up tips are working too well.

GORDON Brown was red-faced again last night after his MAKE-UP tips were left in a taxi by a bungling aide.

The note, among a pile of sensitive documents, told the craggy-faced PM how to apply layers of slap and fake tan.

It adds to his embarrassment after the MPs’ expenses row. It came as details of Tory expenses emerged. There are also security concerns.

The file contained details of Mr Brown’s trip to Yorkshire last week.

A white A4 sheet listed Mr Brown’s make-up routine if he has to do it himself. It read:

1. Transparent Brush. Foam all over. This is believed to be an illuminating foam to give the PM’s face that certain glow.

2. Small pot under eyes, dimple, creases, blend in. This refers to the use of concealer to smooth out facial bumps and blemishes.

3. Clinique. Super balanced make-up. All over again, like painting a wall, and ears. Shut eyes over lids then with make-up pad smooth over liquid. This tells the PM to trowel foundation over his whole face.

4. Powder (dark brush) terracotta Guerlain, all over. Slap on fake tan bronzer.

A Westminster insider said: “It’s an idiot’s guide to applying heavy make-up. It will cause deep embarrassment because the PM paints himself as a no-nonsense man’s man.”

Figures: Obama's Cheap Gift to Gordon Brown Doesn't Work

Smart diplomacy in action.

Alas, when the PM settled down to begin watching them the other night, he found there was a problem.

The films only worked in DVD players made in North America and the words "wrong region" came up on his screen. Although he mournfully had to put the popcorn away, he is unlikely to jeopardise the special relationship – or "special partnership", as we are now supposed to call it – by registering a complaint.

A Downing Street spokesman said he was "confident" that any gift Obama gave Brown would have been "well thought through," but referred me to the White House for assistance on the "technical aspects".

Sure it was. No doubt having some flunky pick up a DVD set from Blockbuster demonstrated the ultimate thoughtfulness Obama is legendary for. In fact, this may have been the first time in his life he thought about anyone but himself.

A White House spokesman sniggered when I put the story to him and he was still looking into the matter when my deadline came last night.

By the way, when Obama's unlikely gift was disclosed, a reader emailed me to ask if Clueless was among the films. Funnily enough, it was not.

Yeah, that Bush was a real idiot, huh?

H/T Ace.

What Happened to That 'Flinty Chicago Toughness'? Obama Cancels Meeting With British PM Because of Snow

Apparently the six weeks of partying in the White House and destroying the economy have taken a toll on Barack Obama. Back in January he scoffed at the panty-waists in Washington who shut down because of a little snow.

Obama said he would have to instill "some flinty Chicago toughness" into Washingtonians.

"When it comes to the weather, folks in Washington don't seem to be able to handle things," he said.

Well, how things quickly change.

No sooner had the Prime Minister's plane touched down at Andrews Air Force on Monday evening when word was passed to travelling Westminster correspondents that the press conference they'd been told to expect had been called off "because of snow".

Hours earlier, at around 4pm EST on Monday, a British official had told me that there would be a "press conference" after the PM and President Barack Obama had met in the Oval Office and before they had their working lunch in the Old Family Dining Room. Exact timings, however, were vague.

By 8pm, the press conference - if there'd ever been one planned - was officially off. The White House press schedule stated: "There will be a pool spray of the meeting." In layman's language, that means a small collection of reporters and perhaps two or three quick questions. That means something very quick and ample opportunity to dodge anything difficult.

I hope Republican leader Rush Limbaugh doesn't hear about this. Lord knows the very delicate Obama may not be able to handle a little criticism.

Instapundit links. Thanks!

Thanks also to Tom Maguire and Michelle Malkin for the links.

Saudi Headchoppers to Lead UN Conference on 'Religious Tolerance'

Is this some kind of sick joke?

Saudi Arabia, the oil-rich Islamic kingdom that forbids the public practice of other religious faiths, will preside Wednesday over a two-day U.N. conference on religious tolerance that will draw more than a dozen world leaders, including President Bush, Israeli President Shimon Peres and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

The event is part of a personal initiative by Saudi King Abdullah to promote an interfaith dialogue among the world's major religions. The Saudi leader agreed for the first time to dine in the same room with the Israeli president at a private, pre-conference banquet Tuesday hosted by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. But Ban hinted that the two leaders -- whose governments do not have diplomatic relations -- were not seated at the same table.

"Normally, in the past, they have not been sitting in the same place like this. That is very important and encouraging," Ban said. "I wholeheartedly support the convening of the interfaith meeting that will be held here at headquarters tomorrow. The values it aims to promote are common to all the world's religions and can help us fight extremism, prejudice and hatred."

We're now officially living in bizarro world when those who are the most intolerant and preach hatred of others are leading an alleged interfaith dialogue. I think I'm going to be ill.

Got 'Global Warming'?

No small wonder that Gordon Brown is adamant about denying the Brits his previously promised referendum on the new EU Constitution Treaty of Lisbon.

Brussels demands thousands more wind turbines across the UK

Britain will be forced to build thousands more wind turbines in the countryside under a Brussels edict to be announced tomorrow.

Energy experts say new EU climate change targets mean the UK will have to generate 40 per cent of its electricity from green sources within 12 years.

In order to meet that target, the number of wind turbines on the land would have to rise fourfold. Thousands more would be needed at sea.

The move would be one of the greatest engineering projects in years - and dramatically change the skyline of Britain and its coastal waters.

But critics say onshore turbines are an expensive blot on the landscape that often fail to generate enough power to justify their existence.

The Government concedes that the shift away from coal and gas will cost up to £6billion [US$23.23 billion] a year. Most of that burden will be passed to consumers.

As the costs of most government mandates are.

The move is part of the EU's commitment to generating 20 per cent of Europe's energy from renewable sources by 2020.

Under the plans - approved by Tony Blair - every member state will be told its contribution to the "green energy revolution" tomorrow. Britain currently has one of the worst records for renewable energy in Europe.

Years of cheap gas mean that nine out of ten homes use gas central heating, while hydroelectric and wind power produces just 2 per cent of electricity.

Tomorrow, the petulant bitch known as the European Union Brussels is expected to demand that 15 per cent of Britain's energy, including heating, transport fuel and electricity, comes from renewable sources by 2020. Because it would cost too much to convert homes and vehicles to green energy, the bulk of the target will have to be met by electricity companies.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs estimates that 40 per cent of electricity will have to be renewable within 12 years.

If it fails to meet the targets - described by civil servants as "difficult" - Europe will impose daily fines on the UK.

[...]

Read it all at The Daily Mail

I agree with Professor Richard Lindzen from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who said: “future generations will wonder in bemused amazement that the early 21st century’s developed world went into hysterical panic over a globally averaged temperature increase of a few tenths of a degree, and, on the basis of gross exaggerations of highly uncertain computer projections combined into implausible chains of inference, proceeded to contemplate a roll-back of the industrial age”. --- Vaclav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic

Previously: Global Warming Scam to Cost EU $100 Billion

Also at A Tangled Web

On The Good Ship Lollipop

Oh, a storm is threatning
My very life today
If I dont get some shelter
Oh yeah, I'm gonna fade away

EU treaty 'will shift power to Europe'
The EU Reform Treaty backed by Gordon Brown paves the way for "a massive and fundamental" shift of power to Europe, a senior Labour MP charged by Parliament with assessing its impact will tell the Commons today.

The comments from Michael Connarty, the pro-European chairman of the all-party European Scrutiny Committee, will mark an explosive start to five weeks of Parliamentary debate on the Treaty - and stoke the growing clamour for a referendum.

Tonight - with Gordon Brown absent from the Commons - rebel Labour MPs hope to stage a substantial rebellion with between 20 and 30 said to be ready to vote for a cross-party amendment demanding a national vote.

The Tories, who support a referendum, last night accused Mr Brown, who is on the last leg of a tour of the Far East, of "running scared" over the vital issue of Europe by making sure he is out of the country when the ratification process gets under way.

Directly contradicting the Prime Minister, who claims he has protected British sovereignty by negotiating "red lines" into the text, Mr Connarty argues these will do little to halt the gradual transfer of power from national parliaments and courts to Europe.

"The Reform Treaty and the red lines are just a postponement of what will be one system for all of Europe," he told The Daily Telegraph last night.

Mr Connarty backs the new Treaty because he wants a stronger Europe but said he had decided to speak out because the British and other governments had not told the people of Europe the truth.

On criminal law, immigration and border controls, the Treaty had set up mechanisms for national vetoes to be steadily eroded and authority transferred from British ministers and UK courts to Europe.

It set the European Parliament on course to gain powers at the expense of Westminster as authority shifted from national capitals to the European centre.

The new Treaty, also known as the Lisbon Treaty, has to be ratified by national parliaments or in referendums in all 27 EU countries to come into effect.

It will scrap dozens of national vetoes, create a new full-time EU President and foreign affairs supremo, and give the EU a legal personality allowing it to sign international treaties.

Mr Brown argues that Labour's promise to hold a referendum on the abandoned Constitutional Treaty in Labour's last election manifesto does not apply to its successor because it is less far reaching.

That argument is further undermined today by a report from the Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee which says that in foreign policy there is little or no difference between the two Treaties.

"We conclude that there is no material difference between the provisions on foreign affairs in the Constitutional Treaty which the Government made subject to approval in a referendum and those in the Lisbon Treaty on which a referendum is being denied."

The Labour-dominated committee accuses the Government of seeking to downplay the importance of large parts of the Treaty such as the new post of EU High Representative for foreign affairs and security, who will be served by a new EU diplomatic External Action Service.

Pro-referendum campaigners revealed plans yesterday to stage local referendums, giving half a million people in marginal constituencies a chance to have their say. Organisers of the "I Want a Referendum" campaign say it will be the biggest vote of its kind since the 1975 Referendum on keeping Britain in the Common Market.

While the Government majority is not under threat in tonight's vote, Labour whips were said to be increasingly concerned last night about cross party alliances forming between MPs discontented with the Treaty for a range of different reasons.

The Tories who have vowed to oppose the Treaty are expected to table amendments to the ratification Bill in the House of Lords later in the ratification process.

Left-wing Labour MPs, urged on by the unions, are also planning to put down their own amendments demanding that the UK's opt-out from the Charter of Fundamental Rights be removed.

If the Tories back such amendments - as a way to kill the Treaty - then Mr Brown's faces real problems.

[...]

There's much, much more at The Telegraph

See also Trouble In Gordon Brown's Paradise

Also at A Tangled Web


Gimme Shelter lyrics, Jagger/Richards

Trouble In Gordon Brown's Paradise

Could a no confidence vote be on the near horizon?

EU treaty won't work, says Labour MP
The new EU constitution treaty "won't work", the government is warned today, as ministers prepare for a bitter Commons showdown over the controversial document.

Gisela Stuart, one of the "wise men" that drew up the original EU Constitution, said the Lisbon treaty lacked the necessary legitimacy to work across Europe.

The Labour MP has signed an amendment to the Bill, which returns to the floor of the Commons on Monday, calling for a referendum on the treaty.

Stuart believes the UK's Europe minister should be a cabinet-level post, akin to a deputy prime minister, and should be directly accountable to the Westminster parliament.

She also wants an assurance that any future changes to qualified majority voting (QMV) in the European parliament would be subject to primary legislation in the House of Commons.

In an interview with Guardian Unlimited, Stuart said: "I think this document pushes to the limits the areas I think I could just about agree with, but I would need further safeguards, so these are the limits and I think that's what this debate is going to be about."

Stuart said the revised document gave the European Union a "toolbox" of powers that would allow it to "interfere in virtually every aspect of our lives".

"There is no longer a question of saying, there are certain things that the union can't touch. Actually the union can touch everything."

Pressed on her objection to the treaty, Stuart said: "I don't think this is going to work."

Asked why, she added: "Because of a lack of legitimacy in the eyes of large swaths of people across Europe ... The crunch will be the environment. If you look at the golden opportunity to tax the little people into oblivion acceleration of climate change, at the moment on the environment we are in a comfort zone of thinking all we need to do is take our bottles to the skip, recycle our newspapers; if you are really daring you say we should put tax on plastic carrier bags. And we think that's enough.

"Well the penny is going to drop that it's not going to be enough, and you will need to make a decision on whether you tax or ration carbon emissions. Of course no one country can sensibly do this on its own, so this will be a classic case of where you need the EU to do this. And the EU will start to ask its citizens to stop doing something they have always comfortably done before. There will be some fairly hard demands.

"People accept hard demands if that's a deal from their own government. But when politicians across Europe start saying, as they have always done, 'it is not us' - it's always been the politician's way of getting out of uncomfortable positions - at that point, it doesn't have that kind of legitimacy." Describing the Lisbon treaty as the same as the failed EU constitution "in substance", Stuart said: "I've been struggling to find analogies of how you compare this. It's like a cookery recipe: all the same ingredients, but you've just rearranged them differently. Or [former French president] Giscard d'Estaing came up with a wonderful phrase: he said, 'it's the same letter; just in a different envelope'.

Stepping up pressure on Gordon Brown to call a referendum, Stuart said: "My view is whether you call it a constitution or whether you call it a treaty, in essence it is something pretty significant, and it's a matter of trust now for the political parties to honour their promise.

"The British people should be given a say, as they were promised by all the major political parties in the 2005 election.

"I certainly will find it difficult to vote for the treaty on Monday unless there is a commitment to have a referendum."

How 'bout dem apples?!? Like Gordon Brown, Gisela Stuart is a member of the Labour Party and she's just thrown down the gauntlet.

Warning of the potential for Europe creep, Stuart said: "I give you one example. Ten years ago everyone said health was [the competence of] national member states. Absolutely no doubt about it. You then started to get court cases where people from one European country were going to another European country for dental treatment. The question was, was that part of the internal market? One of the key things of the European Union.

"So we have the first court decision, the European Court of Justice, that says, 'yes, it is part of the internal market'. And then over a number of years you get more and more decisions because cases come up, until last year when someone in England goes over to France to jump waiting lists and the courts say 'well yes, you can do that, but you need prior permission and all kinds of caveats' - but the principle is established.

"You then at the same time over those 10 years have things like CJD [and] bird flu, so people say, 'well of course, bird flu and CJD don't recognise national boundaries, so public health must be an EU competence.' So we make public health an EU competence; we make health service delivery a court judgment ... so what's the next thing?

"A European commission draws up a proposals for an EU health directive, which it did before Christmas, then decides to withdraw it to consult more. It doesn't say we'll put it back on the table, and as we in the UK are the only ones to have a totally taxpayer-funded [health] system we will have particular problems. But this just illustrates that there is nothing where the EU doesn't have means - whether it's court judgments; whether it's internal market; free movement of labour - the way it makes laws. In every way it now has means, and once it has taken away a UK competence, there is no way you can ever go back."

Stuart called for a strengthening of the prime minister's assurances over QMV.

"The prime minister committed himself to saying, 'no more extension of qualified majority voting or any further powers unless this house agrees to it.' Well, I would like that tightened up," Stuart said. "First of all, the only area where that could happen is in defence and foreign policy, because everything else already has gone to QMV.

"But I would want primary legislation, so it's not just one vote the government can whip through with their majority, but [instead] it would actually have to be a bill and go through the House, and go through [all] the stages.

"The second thing is the way the House itself operates has to change - very, very significantly."

Asked how she would vote in a referendum, Stuart said: "I don't know yet. There are a number of things I would want to hear from our ministers, and assurances in terms of their interpretation, and it will be extremely finely balanced which way I will go.

"My argument is that all the deals struck in Brussels need to be answered at the dispatch box. Create a proper Europe minister, take the Europe minister out of the Foreign Office, but make that person accountable for those negotiations. And that's almost a deputy prime minister post.

"I want them to come to the dispatch box every two weeks and say 'those are the deals we have struck'. I think you would find that that person would probably be responsible for negotiating something like 50% of our legislation, and that would merit a cabinet post."


Via The Guardian

José Manuel Barroso was unavailable for comment.


And hoping to avoid Nigel Farage

See also Reality Confronts European Union.

Also at A Tangled Web

Time for Economics 101, Gordon

I think prime Minister Gordon Brown needs to take and Econ 101 course. I'm still shaking my head over this article on police pay raises.

Pay deal 'in national interest'

The decision to hold back part of the police pay increase this year was taken "in the national interest", Prime Minister Gordon Brown has told MPs.

Mr Brown, who said he would be willing to meet "people" to talk about the pay issue, said "the bigger picture" was the need to keep inflation down.

Huh? Pay increases should be based on the market value of skills and abilities needed to do the job and keep the pay level competitive, not macroeconomic policy goals. When questioned about this, the Prime Minister continued to rewrite the laws of economics.

Mr Brown replied: "Nobody wants to say to the police, you cannot get a higher salary.

"But nobody wants inflation to return to the British economy and have pay awards wiped out simply by rising inflation."

Uh, Mr. Prime Minister, you control inflation by contracting or expanding your money supply via monetary policy, not by playing shell games with your public employee pay raises. Not even John Keynes, the king of "activist government", saw chintzing with pay rates as legitimate fiscal policy. You are simply going to push qualified people out of that profession by artificially holding down pay rates. Also, good luck negotiating with anybody in the future.

So, under the Prime Minister's flawed logic, he should then be giving big pay raises if inflation is low, in the "national interest". Does anybody really believe that would happen?

Me neither.

The police negotiated for these increases via their legitimate arbitration mechanism and deserve to get them. Playing games with their raises is a big mistake.

UK's Brown to Negotiate With Taliban

Winston Churchill is rolling over in his grave, while Neville Chamberlain does a happy dance.

Nothing like craven appeasement so early in your term.

This is really despicable and I would expect more from our ally than to give up and look to actually make peace with these primordial savages.

Gordon Brown will announce today that he intends to talk to the Taliban in a bid to end the war in Afghanistan.

In a major shift in UK foreign policy the Prime Minister is expected to tell the Commons today that negotiation is the only way to bring peace to the war torn country.

This year has been the deadliest in Afghanistan since the U.S. led invasion of 2001.

Since January more than 6,200 people have been killed including 40 British soldiers. In all, 86 British soldiers have died during the campaign which was launched to crush Al Qaeda and the Taliban following the September 11 outrage in America.

The change of tack will be seen as the latest attempt by the prime minister to distance himself from the foreign policy of Tony Blair and his ally George Bush.

In a landmark statement in the Commons he will say that the Cabinet has agreed a three pronged strategy for Afghanistan which will security guaranteed by NATO and the Afghan national army followed by economic and political development in the country.

The third prong of the plan is likely to be most controversial - to engage Taliban leaders in constructive dialogue.

The only thing constructive will be emboldening your enemies.

Now this part I'm curious about. There will be a firestorm if Washington is at all involved in this.

The move in Afghanistan is likely to cause concern in Washington, but a Whitehall source said that the policy had been taken in full consultation with the White House.

The announcement is bound to come as a shock to relatives of British soldiers who have died in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban.

Truly disturbing.

Thug Mugabe Seethes Over EU Criticism

Poor Robert Mugabe. This stain on humanity takes umbrage with European leaders having issue with his brutal dictatorship, which has left Zimbabwe in economic ruin.

Maybe he should take it up with the UN High Commissioner for the Personally Aggrieved.

Defiant Mugabe tells Europe he won't be lectured

A defiant Robert Mugabe told European leaders on Sunday he will not be lectured on how to rule Zimbabwe, hitting back at the German chancellor and other EU leaders who accused him of ignoring human rights.

Mugabe raised his fist in defiance, smiling widely, when asked by Reuters what message he wanted to send Europe on the second and final day of an EU-Africa summit.

"On human rights and good governance, Africa sets its own agenda, of its own free will," Zimbabwe's controversial president said, as quoted by two EU diplomats who listened to his speech to the first Europe-Africa summit in seven years.

The West and rights groups accuse Mugabe of wide-spread human rights violations and wrecking his country's economy but he is viewed as an independence hero by many in Africa.

The Southern Africa Development Community has tried to mediate between Zimbabwe's government and the opposition.

Britain's Gordon Brown boycotted the meeting to protest Mugabe's participation, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel challenged the summit on Saturday to confront human rights abuses in Zimbabwe, saying: "the situation of Zimbabwe is damaging the image of the new Africa."

But Mugabe was quoted by EU diplomats as saying: "Does the German chancellor and the other pro-Gordon Brown people really believe they know better than SADC and the African Union, we have to fight this arrogance."

How anyone with decency can support this thug is beyond comprehension. After ignoring abuses in Zimbabwe for many years, at least Europe is speaking out more forcefully. In the end, until this tyrant is dead or out of power, his country has little hope.

More here and here.

Inflation in Zimbabwe is now the highest in the world at nearly 8,000 percent and Mugabe was also heavily criticised by the West earlier this year when his security forces assaulted opposition leaders.

However Mugabe said Africa did not need lectures from Europeans given that democracy only came to his continent once the era of colonialism was ended.

"Why is the prime minister of Britain not here? Because he has his spokespeople in Germany, Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands. These are his megaphones," he said.

"They spoke yesterday, not from their own own hearts, but what their own friend, master and ally in Number 10 Downing Street (the British premier's office) would be pleased to hear."

Mugabe, in power in the former British colony since independence 27 years ago, was attending the summit despite an EU travel ban imposed after he allegedly rigged his 2002 re-election.

Previously on Mugabe.

Seething to Follow

As part of a terror crackdown, British authorities are unveiling a new plan that is sure to cause much hysteria in the terror community, not to mention among the regular traveling public.

Imagine the indignity people of terror will be subject to when forced to answer 53 questions.

Travellers face price hikes and confusion after the Government unveiled plans to take up to 53 pieces of information from anyone entering or leaving Britain.

For every journey, security officials will want credit card details, holiday contact numbers, travel plans, email addresses, car numbers and even any previous missed flights.

The information, taken when a ticket is bought, will be shared among police, customs, immigration and the security services for at least 24 hours before a journey is due to take place.

Anybody about whom the authorities are dubious can be turned away when they arrive at the airport or station with their baggage.

Those with outstanding court fines, such as a speeding penalty, could also be barred from leaving the country, even if they pose no security risk.

The information required under the "e-borders" system was revealed as Gordon Brown announced plans to tighten security at shopping centres, airports and ports.

Here are the questions. Click to enlarge.

Arrogance On Display

Just three weeks as le gran poobah and he's already in somebody's sights.

EU referendum drive targets Gordon Brown
A cross-party campaign to be launched in September will personally target Gordon Brown for refusing voters a referendum on the new European Union treaty.

As the party conference season gets under way, the "I Want A Referendum" campaign will be launched with an "eye-catching stunt" and advertising in newspapers and cinemas.

A Daily Telegraph campaign for a referendum on the treaty had attracted 12,500 signatures by yesterday, reflecting growing demand for the voters, not Parliament, to be given the final say. The treaty revives elements of the EU constitution, rejected by France and the Netherlands in 2005.

The petition, launched online and in a coupon in this newspaper a week ago, demands that the Government stands by its manifesto commitment to hold a national referendum on the EU reform treaty.

In the Commons yesterday, Mr Brown again rejected calls for a referendum on the amending treaty, due to be agreed by EU leaders at the end of the year. He told Ian Davidson, Labour MP for Glasgow South West and a leading Eurosceptic: "There is no need for a referendum on any issue at the moment."

Heh. Brown just might find out that a majority in Commons may decide that there's no need for the current prime minister, too.

No confidence vote in 5 --- 4 --- 3 --- 2....

There's more.

Staring Down The Russian Bear

Leading presidential contender Ron Paul (Moonbat-Texas) hasn't linked this to Bush foreign policy blowback -- yet. However, the week is still young.

Curbing "Russian Aggression"
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband arrived at the House of Commons with his report on relations with Russia exactly on schedule, at 15:30 London Time. His mood was decisive: the evening before, in a televised interview with the BBC, he had declared that the British government is "considering seriously all of our options" in relation to Russia.In the same interview, the 42-year-old foreign secretary noted that the situation is something of a paradox, since economic ties between Britain and Russia have never been stronger and more flourishing.

In his speech before Parliament, Mr. Miliband dispensed with a lengthy history of the case, since the murder of Alexander Litvinenko and the demand from the British Crown Prosecution Service that Russia hand over suspect Andrei Lugovoi are certainly some of the most high-profile stories in the British press. "Our aims are clear: first to advance our judicial process, second to bring home to the Russian government the consequences of their failure to cooperate, and third to emphasize our commitment to promoting the safety of British citizens and visitors," stressed Mr. Miliband instead.

What happened to the multilateralism, international institutions and new alliance of opportunity claptrap being preached Friday?

Britain's first sanction against Russia involves the introduction of visa restrictions. The press service of the British Embassy in Moscow explained to Kommersant that a new procedure will be developed for reviewing visa applications submitted by the Russian government. In other words, according to UK Embassy spokesman Anjoum Nourani, these restrictions will not affect ordinary Russians, whose documents will be reviewed as before. Documents from Russian officials, however, will be subjected to special checks that will make it more difficult for representatives of the Russian government to travel to Britain.

That'll teach 'em!!!

In addition, the raft of measures proposed by David Miliband includes the suspension of talks aimed at liberalizing the visa regime. As of June 1, 2007, an agreement between Russia and the EU that simplifies the visa-application process for citizens of Russia and the European Schengen Zone countries has been in force, but the UK was not party to this agreement and has been carrying on separate talks with Russia. Now, in the wake of Russia's refusal to hand over Andrei Lugovoi, these negotiations have been closed. The British authorities were also planning to create an independent processing center in Moscow to expedite the granting of visas to Russian citizens, but David Miliband has since announced that this idea has been abandoned.

Mr. Miliband also mentioned the implementation of yet another anticipated sanction against Russia in his speech before Parliament: four Russian diplomats will be expelled from Great Britain within the next few days. The British press has been writing for days about the possibility that such action would be taken, and a source in diplomatic circles told Kommersant that a list has already been compiled in London of possible candidates for expulsion. The British authorities have an idea of which of the employees of the Russian Embassy are intelligence officers, and the current scandal is being used as a pretext to ask them to leave the country. Expulsions of diplomats are not rare occurrences, but usually they take place well out of the public eye. If an employee of an embassy abroad is suspected of intelligence activities, the authorities of the host country simply recommend that the other country's diplomatic mission send that person home. Only rarely do such incidents grow into notorious spy scandals: the last time Russian diplomats were ejected from London to make a point was in 1996.

Most assuredly, Soviet Russian president Vladimir Paranoid is laughing his ass off over the milquetoast now in residence at #10 and his cabinet ministers.

Send Prince Charles to negotiate with Putie and you just might get everything you want -- posthaste.

There's more.

Britain Surrenders

Brown message to US: it's time to build, not destroy
The first clear signs that Neville Chamberlain Gordon Brown will reorder Britain's foreign policy emerged last night when one of his closest cabinet allies urged the US to change its priorities and said a country's strength should no longer be measured by its destructive military power.

Lord Halifax Douglas Alexander, the trade and development secretary, made his remarks in a speech in America, the first by a cabinet minister abroad since Mr Brown took power a fortnight ago.

The speech represents a call for the US to rethink its foreign policy, and recognise the virtues of so-called "soft power" and acting through international institutions including the United Nations.

Which meaningless UN resolution would you like to start with, asshat?

In what will be seen as an assertion of the importance of multilateralism in Mr Brown's foreign policy, Mr Alexander said: "In the 20th century a country's might was too often measured in what they could destroy. In the 21st century strength should be measured by what we can build together. And so we must form new alliances, based on common values, ones not just to protect us from the world, but ones which reach out to the world." He described this as "a new alliance of opportunity".

Y'all didn't learn a damn thing from 1938?

He added: "We need to demonstrate by our deeds, words and our actions that we are internationalist, not isolationist, multilateralist, not unilateralist, active and not passive, and driven by core values, consistently applied, not special interests."

With some neocons in the Bush administration nervous at the direction of Mr Brown's foreign policy, following the appointment of the former UN deputy secretary Lord Malloch-Brown as foreign minister, Mr Alexander went out of his way to underline the special relationship, but challenged the US and its partners "to recognise the importance of a rules based international system".

Milk and cookies, Mr. Osama? Or, would you prefer high tea?

Read the rest of this tripe.

Unbelievable.

More Arrests in Scotland

We'll assume there's a reason the perps have yet to be identified. Probably don't want to offend the Muslims, as we know how delicate their feelings are. Yes, that must be it.

U.K. police make 5th terror arrest

Police searched several houses near Glasgow International Airport on Sunday in connection with a fiery attack on its main terminal and a foiled car bomb plot in London, and police arrested a fifth suspect in the case.

Britain's new prime minister, Gordon Brown, said the country was dealing with terrorists associated with al-Qaida. And Lord Stevens, Brown's new terrorism adviser, said the two attacks in Britain indicate that "al-Qaida has imported the tactics of Baghdad and Bali to the streets of the UK."

Four suspects were in police custody Sunday — and a fifth man was under guard in hospital — after a flaming Jeep crashed into a Scottish airport on Saturday and two car bomb plots were foiled in central London on Friday.

On the upside, it appears some folks in the UK are beginning to get it.

n a column in Sunday's News of the World newspaper, Lord Stevens, London's former police chief and Brown's new terrorism adviser, said: "This weekend's bomb attacks signal a major escalation in the war being waged on us by Islamic terrorists."

He said, "This week's terrorists used the same technology, the same bomb-making techniques, the same operating methods as their brothers-in-arms in both Baghdad and Bali," Indonesia.

In central London, police foiled a car bomb plot early Friday, discovering explosives packed into a Mercedes outside a nightclub near Picadilly Circus and in another car parked nearby.

Glasgow police chief Willie Rae announced the attempted attacks were connected and said a suspect device had been found on a man wrestled to the ground by officers at Glasgow airport and hospitalized in critical condition with severe burns. John Smeaton, who saw the airport attack, said the man shouted "Allah, Allah" as he was detained.

Still, the idiot "Red Ken" Livingstone apparently has a death wish. Such breathtaking stupidity.

Michelle Malkin has a further roundup.

You Can Fool Some . . . .

Tony Blair and Gordon Brown insist that a referendum is unnecessary. Others are call the new EU constitution treaty a sham and are demanding that a referendum be held.

Gordon Brown was under growing pressure last night to hold a referendum on the new EU treaty.

Calls for a vote intensified after Ireland promised to give its people a say.

Irish Premier Bertie Ahern admitted the new treaty reproduced 90 per cent of the EU constitution rejected in 2005. Major constitutional changes are traditionally put to the vote in the Republic.

Tories seized on his remarks to step up demands for a vote on the deal struck by Tony Blair as one of his last acts as Prime Minister.

Their warnings that huge areas of sovereignty were being surrendered set the scene for the first big battle with a Brown Government.

Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague said Ireland's announcement heightened the injustice to British voters.

He said: "It is now getting clearer and clearer that this is basically the constitution by another name.

Good thing you got that figured out so soon, genius.

"Large amounts of power have been transferred to Brussels and the Government has failed to safeguard Britain's interests.

"People in Britain will want to know, when Irish voters will decide for themselves, why Gordon Brown thinks British people do not have the right to have their say."

In its 2005 election manifesto, Labour promised a referendum on the planned constitution, drawn up the previous year. But the need for a poll disappeared when French and Dutch voters defeated the idea.

Mr Brown promised yesterday to listen to debate on the new treaty - agreed by EU leaders at 5am on Saturday after fraught negotiations - though he said he could see no reason for a vote.

Critics said it was increasingly clear Mr Blair had boxed in his successor by signing an agreement that would implement-almost all the controversial-constitution.

The Chancellor stepped in during the negotiations to insist that Mr Blair stopped France watering down the EU's commitment to free trade.


But analysts said the treaty would undermine Britain's control over its foreign policy. Europe will get its own president, foreign minister and diplomatic service.

Both Mr Blair and Mr Brown insisted Britain's "red lines" were not crossed as the UK won an amendment making it clear the EU's ambitions to develop its own common foreign and security policy would not encroach on the interests of member states.

But critics said the "declaration", added to the footnotes of the treaty, would have no legal force.

Mr Blair also gave up Britain's veto in more than 40 areas, including migration, tourism, transport and energy.

But Mr Brown congratulated him on Sunday, saying his negotiating skills had done what the UK set out to do.

He insisted: "We have met our negotiating position."

The Chancellor also said he did not believe the public would see the need for a vote, as the deal was simply an "amending treaty" rather than a new EU constitution.

And if the Brits rise up with pitchforks proving they're not as stupid as you claim they are?.

He pointed out when the Tories were in power they had not seen the need for a referendum on the 1991 Maastricht treaty, which turned the European Community into the EU and paved the way for the creation of the euro.

But in Ireland, Mr Ahern said: "Given the fact that there was strong legal advice that the draft constitution in 2004 would require a referendum in Ireland, and given the fact that these changes haven't made any dramatic change to the substance of what was agreed back in 2004, I think it is likely that a referendum will be held.

"Ireland over the years has tended to err on the side of caution in relation to this because ultimately it is the people who should decide."

The Irish government was planning a referendum in 2005 but stopped its preparations after France and the Netherlands voted "no".

Both Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett and former Tory Chancellor Ken Clarke backed Mr Brown's insistence there was no need for a referendum.

Mrs Beckett said Britain was not a country which governs by referendum.

She said: "People buy into the notion that somehow some massive change has taken place. This is not a massive change."

Mr Clarke admitted: "The nuts and bolts are obviously quite essential" but added: "What we have now is far less important than Maastricht. I think the idea we have a referendum is frankly absurd."

He went on: "Some of the Eurosceptics will have demanded a referendum just about the date on the top of the piece of paper, but they are flogging a dead horse."

And others may decide, sir, that you're frankly absurd. Time will tell.

When Grand Plans Unravel

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has made it one of the goals of her European Union presidency to get the bloc's stalled constitution back on track. However Poland, worried about losing influence under new voting rules, has apparently made it a goal to stop her. And after a weekend of intensive diplomacy, Merkel seems to be no further forward, just days before a crunch EU summit where the treaty will be approved -- or not.

Merkel even admitted on Sunday after talks with Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker that it wasn't impossible that the summit, which will take place Thursday and Friday in Brussels, will fail. She said that as current EU president she would naturally do her best to make sure that it succeeds, but that "a presidency can only be as successful as the willingness to compromise on the part of all the states."

Merkel had spent much of the weekend trying to persuade Poland to soften its position on the treaty's new voting system. She met with Polish President Lech Kaczynski at the German government's guesthouse, Schloss Meseberg, near Berlin Saturday and followed that up with a phone call on Sunday. However she made no progress.

"The positions have not changed," she said Sunday in reference to her conversation with Kaczynski, and said there were "serious problems" which still needed to be solved.

Kaczynski too said after the meeting that both sides were sticking to their guns. "I told the chancellor that the solution we have proposed is already a compromise," Kaczynski said in a statement broadcast by Polish television after the meeting.

Merkel has made it one of her main objectives for her EU presidency -- which runs until the end of June -- to resurrect the bloc's constitution which has been on ice since the Dutch and French populations rejected it in referenda in 2005.

Merkel is hoping to get approval for a revised EU constitution -- which will now be called a "treaty" -- at the summit this week. Germany wants the EU governments to agree to a roadmap to allow a slimmed-down treaty to be ratified by 2009.

If the draft treaty is adopted, the EU voting process will be changed so that it will be easier to make decisions in the expanded 27-member bloc. A new "double majority" voting system will be introduced whereby an EU decision has to be approved by 55 percent of the EU states, which must also represent 65 percent of the bloc's entire population.

The new system will significantly decrease Poland's influence -- and increase Germany's. Poland's population only comprises about 8 percent of the EU total of 490 million, compared to Germany's 17 percent.

Unsurprisingly, Poland, worried about losing power relative to its neighbor, is opposing the new system. It is threatening to use its veto at the summit this week to block any agreement on the treaty, and wants to re-open the discussion on how the voting system will work. It has proposed an alternative "square root" system which would base the number of votes on the square root of a country's population -- and give Poland relatively more clout vis-à-vis Germany.

The issue is seen as a potential dealbreaker at this week's crunch summit, which politicians had been hoping might lift the EU out of the doldrums it has been in since the constitution stalled. Merkel rejected the suggestion Sunday that the issue of the voting system could be excluded from this week's summit and left for detailed negotiations later in the year. "I do not see that as an option," she said.

Germany demanding appeasement from smaller states.

Blair and Sarkozy in a sweetheart deal.

And Gordon Brown apparently having at least some of the intestinal fortitude of Sir Winston.

I love it when a plan coms together.

When Secret Plans Go Awry

Incoming British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is readying the nuclear option.

Gordon Brown defied Tony Blair last night by making clear he is prepared to give the British people a referendum on plans to resurrect the European constitution.

Geoff Hoon, the Minister for Europe, revealed that Mr Brown was ready to stage a national poll if Europe's leaders try to force through a deal that was unacceptable to Britain at this week's EU summit.

Last night, sources close to Mr Brown confirmed his position, with one describing Mr Hoon's comments as a "sensible" analysis of the situation.

Europe's leaders know such a move would kill off any hopes of a treaty because the British people would almost certainly vote it down.

Mr Hoon's intervention comes just two days after Number 10 had explicitly ruled out the need to hold a referendum, despite the Prime Minister's promise three years ago to do so.

It also threatens to reopen divisions between Mr Brown and Mr Blair as they prepare for joint talks with Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, tomorrow.

Can we call Tony Blair a French poodle, yet?