United Kingdon

Sunday Roundup

Arianna Huffington | Posted 05.26.2011

Arianna Huffington

I was in London this week, where the news was filled with images of Finance Minister George Osborne pausing outside 11 Downing Street with a replica of the red "budget box" that has been used to carry budget papers for the last 150 years. Inside the box: a new budget calling for the slashing of government programs and an embrace of massive debt reduction -- even while the British economy continues to sputter. The next morning, in an editorial meeting at the Guardian, I listened as story angles were discussed: economic growth is slower than expected; unemployment remains higher than expected; the deficit will be higher than expected. I had a real feeling of déjà vu from across the Atlantic, and I thought I might send over some of America's headlines from last year and save them the time and aggravation of coming up with new ones. Isn't it time for governments to expect their expectations to be wrong?

12 Arrested In Suspected Large-Scale Terror Attack Plot

AP | PAISLEY DODDS | Posted 05.25.2011

LONDON — In the biggest anti-terrorist sweep in Britain in nearly two years, police have arrested a dozen men accused of plotting a large-scale ...

U.K. Signals "Too Big To Fail" Banks May Be Broken Up

Wall Street Journal | Jeffrey Sparshot | Posted 05.25.2011

The WSJ reports (on-line): "The U.K.'s top treasury official Sunday said the government is starting a process to rebuild the country's banking system,...

Why We Are Subjected to Beatlemania, Again

Tamara Conniff | Posted 05.25.2011

Tamara Conniff

I love the Beatles, don't get me wrong. Paul McCartney in concert is a religious experience. But I'm over Beatlemania. I want it to stop. Why now? A little thing called copyright.

UK Enlisted Astrologer to Fight Hitler

AP | D'ARCY DORAN | Posted 05.25.2011

LONDON — Desperate for a glimpse into Adolf Hitler's unpredictable mind, British spies hired an astrologer during World War II to write horoscop...

Rule, Britannia? UK To Lay Claim To Vast Swaths Of South Atlantic

The Guardian (U.K.) | Owen Bowcott | Posted 05.25.2011

Britain is preparing territorial claims on tens of thousands of square miles of the Atlantic Ocean floor around the Falklands, Ascension Island and Ro...