Word: britain
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...able to look its ordinary citizens straight in the eyes before killing them for their own good. And please spare those people speeches about how it is only their government we hate, not them. If the whole world operated by that standard, Prime Minister Tony Blair's Britain and President George W. Bush's U.S. would have been invaded a good four years ago. Alice Pfeifer Hays, Kansas...
...studios of 18 Doughty Street, Britain's latest political-news network, are located in a venerable town house in a part of London that was built on the spoils of empire and that, for more than a century, has been the capital's center of jurisprudence. To the right and left and across the road from No. 18, attorneys peddle notions of justice and fair play. But visitors to 18 Doughty Street are advised to check such outmoded concepts at the door. "We provide some balance," says Iain Dale, the network's co-founder and star presenter, "but no impartiality...
Americans are used to political programming served up with more than a dash of fire breathing, but in Britain, television and partisanship don't mix. A few Bill O'Reilly lites and Stephen Colbert wannabes occupy late-night slots on the BBC and the country's commercial networks, but their employers are quick to rein them in if they stray too far from properly milquetoast commentary. That's in part to avoid censure from Ofcom, the independent regulator charged with ensuring that on-air political programming stays ideology free...
...Britain's so-called "cash for honors" inquiry has shone a harsh spotlight on the House of Lords - the country's unelected upper house - and the system of political patronage that keeps its red-leather benches stocked. More than 600 Lords and Ladies are politically appointed and they sit alongside 92 peers whose only qualification for public office is that they inherited titles originally conferred on their ancestors back in the days when nobody saw the harm in rewarding loyalty with the odd tongue-twisting honorific and a few dozen serfs. Together with archbishops, bishops and legal chiefs, this motley...
...power in 1997 and two years later Labour duly replaced most of the hereditary Lords and Ladies with appointed peers, ignoring the protests of angry aristos such as the Earl of Burford, who vaulted onto the Speaker's chair, bellowing, "What we are witnessing is the abolition of Britain!" The government's attempt in 2003 to initiate a second stage of reform went nowhere when MPs rejected every option for a new upper house laid before them. The Prime Minister had argued for an all-appointed house, saying a chamber with an elected element would rival Commons...