A carbon tax by accident?!

Via Yglesias, I hear the UK has so few veto points that's basically what happened.

That's freaking hilarious to contrast with the US experience.

Of course, I remain strongly in favor of veto points and divided government.  The amusingly positive idiosyncrasies possible in this technocracy don't come anywhere near outweighing the deleterious effect of the vast socialist state it enabled.

Andrew makes similar points on UK spending cuts.

UK plans deepest cuts to spending in 60 years

The Cameron-Clegg coalition delivers again:

LONDON — The British government on Wednesday unveiled the country’s steepest public spending cuts in more than 60 years, reducing costs in government departments by an average of 19 percent, sharply curtailing welfare benefits, raising the retirement age to 66 by 2020 and eliminating hundreds of thousands of public sector jobs in an effort to bring down the bloated budget deficit.

“Today is the day when Britain steps back from the brink,” a confident George Osborne, who as chancellor of the Exchequer is Britain’s top finance minister, told the House of Commons.

“It is a hard road but it leads to a better future,” he said, but “to back down now would be the road to economic ruin.”

He said that 490,000 public sector jobs would be lost over the four-year savings program and the size of government departments in London would be cut by one third. Public spending would be cut by around $130 billion by 2015.

Awesome!

The English language in 24 accents

Sir Ian McKellen at the anti-pope march in London

Ok, not quite.

Lockean thought and Page 3

Sometimes you just gotta love the Brits [NSFW]

Only Nick Clegg can save Labour

Strange times indeed

Against the Lib-Dems

Via Andrew, The Economist backs the Tories. Here's their case against Clegg:

[L]ook at the policies, rather than the man, and the Lib Dems seem less appealing. In the event of another European treaty, they would hold a referendum not on that treaty but on whether to stay in or leave the EU; odd, given that they also (wrongly) want to take Britain into the euro. They are flirting with giving up Britain’s nuclear deterrent. They would abolish tuition fees for universities, which would mean either letting the quality of British higher education slide still further or raising the subsidy to mostly well-off students by increasing state funding. They are worried about climate change but oppose the expansion of nuclear power, which is the most plausible way of cutting emissions. Their policies towards business are arguably to the left of Labour’s. A 50% capital-gains tax, getting rid of higher-rate relief on pensions and a toff-bashing mansion tax are not going to induce the entrepreneurial vim Britain needs.

I must admit I was a bit caught up in the Clegg-mania, finding his anti-establishment-ness refreshing (Britain has a dreadfully awful establishment). And watching the implosion of Labour's statist scourge has been blissful; one cannot help cheer both dogs against the Brown-Blair axis.

But other than their comment against giving up the UK's nuclear weapons--I'm with the Lib-Dems on this, the Cold War is over for $DEITY's sake--the Economist's policy case seems fairly devastating. Go Tories.

Jeremy Clarkson makes a lot of sense

In UK's Times. A quote:

I have a solution to the problem, a way that normal human behaviour can be preserved. It’s simple. We must start to accept that 5% of the population at any given time is bonkers. There are no steps to be taken to stamp this out and no lessons to be learnt when a man with a beard boards a plane with an exploding dog.

Why do the British still have royalty?

Best answer:

Because it works. The last thing Britain wants is some douchebag politician as head of state.

After 9/11 Bush's approval rating went up because the country rallied around the head of state. In the UK, the Queen fills that role and rallying around her is mostly harmless. The Prime Minister whose intelligence lapses caused such an event would not have such an easy ride.

It's separation of patriotism and politics and I cannot commend it to you enough.

Gordon Brown proposes instant run-off referendum

Some good news for UK's liberal dems, though it wouldn't take effect this election.

Copenhagen dispatch

Nate Silver doesn't have much to report yet, but what he does say is amusing:

It's been a long 20 hours or so in various sorts of planes, trains and lines. I'm used to keeping a relatively, uh, abstract schedule, but the overnight flight left a little bit too early for me to be tired, and then by the time I was getting tired, it was light out, and now -- even though it's just 2:30 PM here -- it's already about to get dark again.

The conference, at this point, feels more like a trade show than a political event, but it's cool to be surrounded by so many people from all over the world -- imagine the international terminal at JFK, but with even worse food and people walking by in giant tree costumes.

I did have a good conversation with a couple of Brits while waiting in line for my NGO badge. They were very bright and keyed in -- they run a green taxi company in London -- but I was surprised at how confusing they found American politics to be. How can the Senate require 60 percent to pass something? How can Delaware have as many senators as New York? What's up with the whole electoral college thing? How can Obama go from 70 percent popularity to 50 percent in a half a year? Could Sarah Palin really become President someday? The Guardian, among others, has some very good Washington coverage, but I think there's an opportunity for one of the UK dailies to provide a Washington column that's specifically geared toward a British or European audience: we tend to take for granted how freakin' weird our politics can be to the rest of the world.

Former soldier faces jail for handing in discarded gun

Guildford, UK - A former soldier who handed a discarded shotgun in to police faces at least five years imprisonment for "doing his duty".

Paul Clarke, 27, was found guilty of possessing a firearm at Guildford Crown Court on Tuesday – after finding the gun and handing it personally to police officers on March 20 this year.

The jury took 20 minutes to make its conviction, and Mr Clarke now faces a minimum of five year's imprisonment for handing in the weapon.

In a statement read out in court, Mr Clarke said: "I didn't think for one moment I would be arrested.

"I thought it was my duty to hand it in and get it off the streets."

The court heard how Mr Clarke was on the balcony of his home in Nailsworth Crescent, Merstham, when he spotted a black bin liner at the bottom of his garden.

In his statement, he said: "I took it indoors and inside found a shorn-off shotgun and two cartridges.

"I didn't know what to do, so the next morning I rang the Chief Superintendent, Adrian Harper, and asked if I could pop in and see him.

"At the police station, I took the gun out of the bag and placed it on the table so it was pointing towards the wall."

Mr Clarke was then arrested immediately for possession of a firearm at Reigate police station, and taken to the cells.

Alex Massie is enraged:

[..] assuming that these are all the relevant facts, this is worse than absurd: it is monstrous. Next time you hear a copper complaining that people don't respect the police think on this and remember that if the police are mistrusted it is, at least in large part, because they have often forfeited the right to be trusted. This story, extreme as it may be, reaffirms that.

The law is clearly at fault here, but that doesn't excuse the willful, even vindictive abandonment of common sense in this instance. This isn't a miscarriage of justice, it's a betrayal of justice and with the exception of Mr Clarke all concerned, including the jury, should be ashamed of themselves.

NRO adds:

The legal explanation for this fiasco is that possession of a gun without a permit is a 'strict liability' offense (ie there are no excuses) which carries a mandatory (ah yes, those mandatory minimums again...) sentence of at least five years. The real explanation is, of course, that the law is insane.

Texas vs. Scotland

Big brother, big expense hole

Slashdot:

"Only one crime was solved for each 1,000 CCTV cameras in London last year, a report into the city's surveillance network has claimed. The internal police report found the million-plus cameras in London rarely help catch criminals. In one month CCTV helped capture just eight out of 269 suspected robbers. David Davis MP, the former shadow home secretary, said: 'It should provoke a long overdue rethink on where the crime prevention budget is being spent.' He added: 'CCTV leads to massive expense and minimum effectiveness. It creates a huge intrusion on privacy, yet provides little or no improvement in security. The Metropolitan Police has been extraordinarily slow to act to deal with the ineffectiveness of CCTV.'"

Crazy Islamism watch

(meme) During special Muslim swimming sessions in UK public swimming pools, women must wear "burkinis".

Summer viewing

Spaced, one of the finest SF-related TV shows ever made, is now available for Americans to view on Hulu, a mere ten years after its first UK broadcast.

A review:

Spaced was a UK sitcom that ran for two seasons in 1999 and 2001 and was tremendously critically acclaimed at the time. The creative team subsequently moved into cinema, creating the hit movies Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and the forthcoming The World Ends, but Spaced remains by far their funniest and most rewarding work.

Episode 1 link

Comparative ceremonies

Touché, but remember the other side of the note has a picture of the Queen. We have ceremonial deism, they have ceremonial monarchy.

Yet separating the head of state's pomp from the head of government's circumstance seems an effective model to avoid messianic overinvestment in a single figure like the U.S. president. Advantage: UK.

Want your wallet returned if lost?

Be sure to carry a baby picture. It's evolution, people.

By the by, Children of Men is an excellent movie.

Dept. of things I've learned on Wikipedia

From today's featured article...

Gropecunt Lane was a street name found in English towns and cities during the Middle Ages, believed to be a reference to the prostitution centred on those areas; it was normal practice for a medieval street name to reflect the street's function, or the economic activity taking place within it. Gropecunt, the earliest known use of which is in about 1230, appears to have been derived as a compound of the words "grope" and "cunt". Streets with that name were often in the busiest parts of medieval towns and cities, and at least one appears to have been an important thoroughfare. Although the name was once common throughout England, changes in attitude resulted in it being replaced by more innocuous versions such as Grape Lane. Gropecunt was last recorded as a street name in 1561.

Perhaps the next time I hear someone complain about how vulgar and sexual modern society has become, I'll use this ready line... "Oh yeah? In 16th century England there were streets named GROPECUNT."

Male obsolescence watch

Newcastle scientists claim to have created human sperm in a lab, a world first. New Scientist has more details.

It's the sort of advance that—if translateable to adult stem cells—might lead to lesbian partners reproducing sexually within a decade or so.