The Shocking State of Britain's Navy 2026

Wealth Taxes & Flight... It's Complicated

This is a very good examination of a hot button topic.

The UK is a Warning to the Rest of the World

HT Blog reader Kurt.

I had never heard of this guy before but found the arguments presented to be cogent and well backed by sources and statistics. 

The Decline of Liberal Policing in Britain and its Former Empire

The concept of classical liberal policing (henceforth “liberal policing”) has taken a beating in recent years, nowhere more so than in Britain and its former dominions. When Sir Robert Peel established the London Metropolitan Police in 1829, the flagship of Britain’s modern police forces, he envisioned it as a people’s police. Officers would defend British liberties on behalf of the public, not because the common people were incapable, but because it was more efficient to delegate the task to full-time professionals. To reduce undue political influence, officers swore an oath of allegiance to the Crown and to the law, not to the government of the day. They were unarmed and dressed in blue, as opposed to military scarlet, to emphasize their civilian status. The liberal image of British “bobbies,” as they were affectionately nicknamed, was immortalized in the television show Dixon of Dock Green (1955–1976). The main character, Police Constable George Dixon, lived among the community he served and upheld the law through routine foot patrols. His knack for subduing wrongdoers through words of wisdom meant that he rarely used violence.

Even as this television show was being aired, however, British police forces were discarding the liberal policing model. Constables have become increasingly militarized, politicized, and distant from the citizens they are supposed to serve. Nowadays, they appear more likely to violate civil liberties than to safeguard them. Two examples will suffice to show this fact. In 2002, the police arrested Harry Hammond, a British evangelical Christian, for exercising his right to protest. Hammond held up a placard in public criticizing homosexuality. When offended hecklers began verbally and physically harassing Hammond, the police were called. In the old days, they would have protected Hammond because freedom of speech is a central pillar of British justice. Instead, an officer arrested Hammond for hate speech. Even influential figures find themselves targeted. In September 2025, counter-terrorism police detained George Galloway and his wife. Galloway is a former member of parliament who leads the far-left Workers Party of Britain. Many of Galloway’s political opinions are anathema to liberalism. Nevertheless, he has a right to freedom of speech, and he is a brave critic of British imperialism. Counter terrorism officers informed Galloway and his wife that they were being detained without charge and that they had no right to silence. The elderly couple were grilled for several hours about their views on Palestine, Russia, China, and other areas of the world. Their devices and documents were confiscated. Galloway, who is in his seventies, says the stress of the ordeal has left him with heart problems.

How could the British police have degenerated so quickly from Dixon of Dock Green into an overbearing state gendarmerie? This article argues that there was always an illiberal streak in Peel’s model of policing. Like many British liberals, Peel supported the British Empire, which used repression to keep subject peoples in check. From the outset, this concession to imperialism left the door open to police authoritarianism. This threshold was crossed irrevocably in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as colonialism reached its apex and the First World War militarized the country. This tendency compromised the British police by the 1920s, though it preserved some liberal aspects until the 1960s, and one could find a liberal-minded remnant well into the early 2000s.

Read the rest here.

UK: Pubs go to war with the Labour Party

abour MPs heading back to their constituencies this weekend will do so with a sense of relief that another turbulent term in British politics is over. But those hoping to pitch up at their local pub for a restorative pint with colleagues and constituents may find festive cheer is in short supply. In fact, some may not be allowed through the door.

For the past few weeks, pubs across the country have been putting up signs declaring “No Labour MPs” in protest at changes to business rates announced by the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, in her latest budget.

The campaign means, for many Labour MPs, there is one less place to escape the bruising reality of their party’s unpopularity. Backbenchers now say they frequently encounter hostility in public spaces after a difficult first 18 months in which the party’s ratings have plummeted from about 34% to 18%.

“It can be hard being the MP of the area you have always lived in,” said one. “The local pub is where we used to go with the kids and just be a normal family. But the last few times we’ve just ended up being shouted at by other customers. Now I’m not even sure we’ll be able to get in.”

That sense of dismay is palpable in a recent video posted by Tom Hayes, the Labour MP for Bournemouth East, about being banned from one of his local pubs, the Larderhouse.

“It’s the Christmas season, it’s meant to be the joyful season,” he said. “But the Larderhouse and other businesses with a No Labour MPs sticker in the window, they are undermining the inclusive culture that business owners locally have helped to nourish.”

He went on to add: “We have to get politics off the high street full stop, but especially at Christmas.”

Read the rest here.

London Police Must Disclose Ties to Freemasonry

Metropolitan police officers must tell their bosses if they are Freemasons, the force has announced, amid fears membership could be linked to corruption.

Britain’s largest force said anyone who was part or had been a member of a “hierarchical organisation that require members to support and protect each other” must declare it.

The body representing Freemasons condemned the rule and said it would consider legal action.

The issue of Freemasons in the Met has been long-running, but previous commissioners have either thought tougher rules were not justified or not worth the pain.

The current commissioner, Mark Rowley, was moved to act as part of his drive to show the public the force can be trusted.

The Guardian also understands, however, that a recent case of alleged wrongdoing in the force contains allegations that acts under investigation may be linked to Freemasonry.

The Met has held intelligence for years of potential corruption linked to personal relationships formed through membership of the Freemasons, but nothing has been proved.

Read the rest here.

UK: Mass migration is only part of the problem.

The other part of the problem is all the skilled workers and the well off who are leaving.

What's going on with Prince Andrew?

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Words fail.

A (rare) Victory for Legal Sanity

LONDON — Britain’s highest court ruled Wednesday that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex.

Own Goal

The proprietor of the Gedling Inn recently offered a free pint (beer) for every goal scored by local favorite Nottingham Forest soccer club during the game with Brighton. Soccer (the Brits call it football) is not typically a high scoring game. Alas, this turned into a very generous act when the match turned into an unusual 7-0 blow out for the Reds. Apparently, a very good time was had by all. The total cost to the establishment was estimated at near ₤1,500. But the owner, a Mrs. Webster, was a good sport declaring how thrilled she was that the team was doing well. 

Source

UK: New Law to Remove Last of Hereditary Lords from Parliament

The government is proposing to banish all remaining hereditary peers from the House of Lords in the biggest shake-up of parliament in a quarter century.

The UK’s 92 remaining hereditary peers – who have inherited their titles from their parents – will lose their right to sit and vote in the upper chamber under proposals put forward by ministers on Thursday.

The move would complete reforms first made by Tony Blair’s government, which revoked the 700-year-old right of all hereditary peers to sit in the Lords in 1999. Just 92 of them, elected from the whole group, were allowed to remain until an agreement could be reached to phase them out altogether.

All 92 hereditary peers who now hold seats in the Lords are white men, and their average age is just under 70. They have continued to top up their numbers by holding byelections when one of them retires or dies.

Campaigners have long called for the system to be overhauled. In its manifesto, Labour said the continued existence of hereditary peers was “indefensible”.

The government’s bill will mean that there will no longer be any hereditary peers in the upper chamber. The earl marshal and the lord great chamberlain, who had been expected to keep their seats because of their ceremonial functions, will also be removed.

The bill is likely to become law sometime next year, and will fulfil a Labour manifesto commitment.

Read the rest here.

UK General Election (seeing red)

There is an old saying in politics, that each election is different. Some years you are the windshield, and in others you're the bug. (Unless you're Donald Trump, in which case you never lose.)

Early reports from the UK where the polls have now closed, suggest that Labour is on track for a record majority while the Conservatives appear to have suffered their worst defeat in modern political history. Labour's massive win and the corresponding collapse of the Tories, appears to be at least in part due to the infighting on the right. Specifically, the rise of the new Reform Party and its rightwing populist leader Nigel Farage. Exit polls suggest that Reform, on track to win perhaps 13 seats, actually got a larger share of the popular vote than the Liberal Democrats, on track to win around 60 seats. That means that they are almost certainly responsible for a very large number of normally safe Conservative seats swinging to Labour. 

The other news, some might call it a silver lining in a very dark cloud, is that it looks like the SNP, Scotland's leftwing secessionist party, has been absolutely pasted.  The numbers are not firm as of this post, but exit polling suggests they are on track to lose around 80% of their seats in Westminster. In all cases the beneficiary being Labour. It should be noted that Scotland has a devolved parliament, and the SNP still controls the government there with the next Scottish election not scheduled for another two years. 

UK Election: Poll predicts huge win for Labour

A new poll commissioned by the right leaning Daily Telegraph suggests Labour is heading for a landslide win in the July 4th election. The poll puts Labour on course to win more than 500 seats in the next parliament, while the Conservatives may hold as few as 53 seats. If this proves even remotely accurate, it will deliver the largest electoral majority in British history and leave the Conservative Party on political life support. Among the secondary parties, the Liberal Democrats are predicted to be only a few seats short of the Tories while the secessionist Scottish National Party would see its numbers drop by 40 to just eight. More than half of current ministers are believed in danger of losing their seats, including Rishi Sunak who could become the first sitting Prime Minister to lose his seat in a general election. The right-wing Reform UK (formerly the Brexit Party) headed by Nigel Farage is not expected to win any seats but is likely to contribute to the Tory collapse. 

The poll is a bit of an outlier, with most others showing a big win for Labour but not quite the existential collapse of the Tories that this one is predicting. And the pollsters acknowledge that around 100 seats are close enough that some could remain Conservative. But even in a best-case scenario for the Conservatives, Labour is likely to walk away with a de facto election proof majority leaving them firmly in government for at least the next ten years.

Story here (paywalled)

Update: Another poll, this one from Sky News. It's also pretty grim for the Conservatives, if perhaps just a bit less apocalyptic. 

Great Britain: Rishi Sunak vows to reinstate "National Service"

As the UK gears up for a general election on July 4th, the Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has vowed to reintroduce National Service (Britain's version of the draft) with an option for some kind of alternative community service. Britain has generally eschewed compulsory military service, except during the two world wars and the early years of the cold war. National Service was formally abolished in 1960. By contrast, military conscription remained in force in the United States until 1973. Polls show Labour with a commanding lead going into the election. 

Details.

Meanwhile, Labour is considering giving 16-year-olds the right to vote.

Britain to Vote on 4th of July

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday set July 4 as the date for a national election that will determine who governs the U.K., choosing a day of good economic news to urge voters to give his governing Conservatives another chance.

“Now is the moment for Britain to choose its future,” Sunak said as he stood in heavy rain outside the prime minister’s residence.

Sunak’s center-right party has seen its support dwindle steadily after 14 years in power. It has struggled to overcome a series of crises including an economic slump, ethics scandals and a revolving door of leaders in the past two years.

The center-left Labour Party is strongly favored to defeat Sunak’s party.

The prime minister’s announcement was nearly drowned out by protesters blasting “Things Can Only Get Better,” a Labour campaign song from the Tony Blair era.

Bookies and pollsters rank Sunak as a long shot to stay in power. But he said he would “fight for every vote.”

Read the rest here.

Not a date generally associated with favorable events in British history.

King Charles has cancer

Respice post te. Hominem te esse memento. Memento mori.

Who is rich?

The Guardian thinks anyone who makes over £60,000 (around $76,000) is wealthy and should be taxed accordingly. In the United States, that is considered middle class. In some parts of the country, it is on the low end of middle class. 

David Starkey: What is to be done?