SOCIETY

The erosion of freedom in Great Britain continued yesterday when the High Court ruled against a Christian couple (why do they always come in couples?) who were seeking to become foster carers.

IBTimes interviews Jeanne Allen, the President of The Center for Education Reform, about education in Great Britain and the United States and about the rise of charter schools in the US and of academies and now free schools in Britain.

There was little good news for Fianna Fáil this past weekend with a general election expected to be held on 25 February and no change in the prediction that the current ruling party are going to lose badly. However, with a new party leader, Micheál Martin, Fianna Fáil's support does appear to have stabilised at 16 per cent. This was found to be the case in two opinion polls, one conducted by Red Co for the Sunday Business Post and another by MillwardBrown Lansdowne for the Sunday Independen...

The Chair of the Conservative Party, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, is to speak out today against prejudice against Muslims, which she claims is the last acceptable form of bigotry in Britain.

Aluminum Corp of China (Chinalco) will set up a joint venture with a local company to develop rare earths in the southern Chinese province of Guangxi, the China Securities Journal reported on Thursday.

The case of Peter and Hazelmary Bull, the Christian hoteliers who yesterday were forced to pay £3,600 to a homosexual couple who were refused a room at their hotel, has some disturbing implications for modern Britain.

A disturbing new trend is slowly arising in Great Britain which if unchecked could spell the end of the relatively free society we live in and risks taking us back to a less tolerant age.

A prominent headline on the front page of the Brisbane Courier-Mail reads: FLOOD RELIEF APPEAL Australia Unites Donate Now

Yesterday Bob Ainsworth, who served as Minister of Defence under Gordon Brown, called for an end to the "War on Drugs" and for legalisation on the grounds that it is a war we are losing.

The English Defence League has denied reports that it invited Pastor Terry Jones to speak at its rally on 5 February. Pastor Jones was the American pastor who caused outrage in the Muslim world by threatening to burn a Koran on the anniversary of the 11 September terrorist attacks.

The controversial English Defence League is once again hitting the headlines after the anti-Islam group invited Pastor Terry Jones to speak at an EDL rally early next year.

When I was a small child I loved the Royal Tournament. I still remember one year when jousting knights took part in the tournament as being, for me, the high point of the show, that, and the sight of cavalry and horse drawn guns manoeuvring dangerously around the field and the legendary field gun race. All done of course to some of Britain and the world's best military music (Suppe's Light Cavalry Overture was particularly apt).

Transport for London has downplayed the impact of a strike by the TSSA and RMT unions, which began last night and will end this evening.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has said that it is to conduct an assessment into the Coalition government's Comprehensive Spending Review, announced last month.

Londoners are due to face another day of tube disruptions after talks broke down between Transport for London and the TSSA and RMT unions.

A 15 year old girl in the West Midlands has been arrested on suspicion of inciting religious hatred after allegedly burning a Koran and posting footage of the event on Facebook.

The news that the proposed takeover of BskyB by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation had led to concerns about competition did not come as a surprise. What was a surprise however was that the takeover is now being opposed by the Church of England.

The media empire of Rupert Murdoch has found itself a new foe in the form of the Church of England. Rather than say "render unto God what is God's and to Murdoch what is Murdoch's", the CoE has expressed its opposition to the takeover of BSkyB by News Corporation, as such a move could undermine impartiality at Sky news.

The West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit has claimed that group's such as the English Defence League are responsible for "encouraging" the radicalisation of young Muslims in parts of Britain, a claim the EDL has strongly denied.

Clarence House has announced that Prince William will be marrying his long-term girlfriend Kate Middleton in the Spring or Summer of next year.

Stephen Lennon, the founder of the English Defence League, has been charged with assaulting a police officer, following a showdown between the anti-Islam group and members of the fundamentalist organisation Muslims Against Crusades.

London is expected to see the largest number of job losses as a result of government cuts, but Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and North-east England are likely to suffer more proportionally, a new report claims.

Rich Iott, a Republican and Tea Party candidate for Congress in Ohio, has run into trouble after a photo of him dressed as an SS soldier found its way to the press.

Otto von Bismarck, the famed Chancellor of 19th century Germany, is famously said to have remarked that in life there are two things that it is better not to know how they are made: laws and sausages. Watching the first episode of the new series of "The Apprentice" I can't help but feel the old man was right.

A few days ago the BBC aired "Start Your Own School", a documentary following the fortunes of author Toby Young who, with similar minded parents, is attempting to set up a "Free School" in West London.

It was entirely predictable that even though Pastor Terry Jones of Florida called off his distasteful Koran burning to mark 11 September, others, with even less sense than he had, would go ahead with their own burning.

Britain and Ireland are apparently the worst places to live in Europe, at least according to a survey conducted by price comparison website uSwitch.

Shares in BP were up on the FTSE 100 in morning trading after the Macondo oil well was declared "dead" by US officials yesterday.

During his visit to Britain, Pope Benedict XVI has spoken against what he called "aggressive secularism", which he accused of attempting to drive God and religion out of the public sphere with an intolerance that has faint echoes of Nazism and Communism.