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UK PM David Cameron signs deal for Scottish independence vote in 2014
EDINBURGH — British Prime Minister David Cameron and nationalist Scottish leader Alex Salmond signed an agreement today to give the Scottish people a referendum on independence in 2014.
The referendum will ask voters whether they want Scotland to remain in the 305-year-old union with England.
Cameron opposes a break-up of the union, arguing that Britain is stronger together, and opinion polls show only between 30 and 40% of Scots support independence. (Ian MacNicol/AFP/Getty Images)
Photos of the day
A couple walk along the Seven Sisters cliffs close to the Beachy Head lighthouse near Eastbourne, England, Sept. 1, 2011. (Luke MacGregor/Reuters)
Six times the usual number of police to patrol London’s streets Friday
British police prepared to flood the streets on Friday to ensure that weekend drinking does not reignite the rioting that swept London and other cities this week, shocking Britons and sullying their country’s image a year before it hosts the Olympics.
Steve Kavanagh, deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said 16,000 officers, instead of the usual 2,500, would remain on duty in London in their biggest peacetime deployment — a measure of the perceived public order challenge.
Even in normal times, alcohol-fuelled street disorder is commonplace across urban Britain at the weekend. (Photo: Peter Nicholls/Reuters)
‘You will pay for what you have done’: Cameron
Prime Minister David Cameron, facing a defining crisis of his premiership, promised on Thursday to crack down on street gangs as a national priority and said rioters behind Britain’s worst violence in decades would be hunted and punished.
“The fightback has well and truly begun,” he told an emergency session of parliament, acknowledging that police numbers and tactics had been inadequate at the outset of the violence which spread from London to other major cities.
“As to the lawless minority, the criminals who’ve taken what they can get, I say this: We will track you down, we will find you, we will charge you, we will punish you. You will pay for what you have done,” the prime minister said. (Photo: Stefan Wermuth/Reuters)
If the London rioters were protesters they wouldn’t look so happy
It is the joy on display that is so unsettling. People who are protesting are by nature angry, or at least solemn. They have upraised fists, and homemade signs.
But young Britons haven’t even bothered to come up with a slogan or a decent chant. They are blissfully happy as they destroy other people’s property. They are without guilt.
It can be seen in the images of giddy youths hauling flat-screen televisions out of plundered shops. It can be read in the reports where, as one witness described, a young woman looted so many sweaters from a high-end London store she tottered under their weight.
Photo: Hundreds of messages of support from the community of Peckham are posted on a looted storefront in south London, August 10, 2011. (Chris Helgren/Reuters)
(A double decker bus burns during a riot in Tottenham, north London on Aug. 6, 2011. Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images)
Police battled rioters in the Tottenham district of north London late on Aug. 6, 2011 after a local man was fatally shot by police earlier in the week. Eight officers were taken to hospital as rioters set patrol cars, buildings and a double-decker bus on fire. http://natpo.st/p2EzYk
Photo gallery: Hat tricks at the Royal Ascot
It’s Royal Ascot week in the U.K. The races, which continue until June 18, are a British tradition, mixing sport, style and pageantry. According to us, it’s a week for looking at eccentric hats. (Photo: Carl de Souza/AFP/Getty Images)
Photos of the Day
Model Anneka Tanaka-Svenska has her elaborate hat adjusted on the first day of the annual Royal Ascot horse racing event near Windsor, Berkshire, west of London, June 14, 2011. The hat was created by milliner Louis Mariette to celebrate Royal Ascot’s 300th anniversary and was inspired by Queen Anne who officially opened Ascot in 1711. (Carl De Souza/AFP/Getty Images)
Obama calls for renewal in transatlantic relationship
U.S. President Barack Obama delivered a powerful exaltation on the past and the future of the transatlantic alliance Wednesday, anchoring a European tour by decrying the notion of inevitable Western decline.
But the gap between soaring oratory and the intractable nature of modern challenges was laid bare as Obama admitted the current NATO operation in Libya had “limitations” and was able to offer little new hope for Middle East peace.
Graphic: Volcanic ash concentration
About 250 flights to northern Britain were cancelled on Tuesday over concerns about the ash cloud spewing from an Icelandic volcano, but British and Irish officials dismissed fears of a mass shutdown of airspace.
Photos: Icelandic volcano erupts
Prince William and Kate exchange rings in front of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Photo credit: Dominic Lipinski/Reuters
Inside the Royal Ceremony
A look at the festivities inside Westminster Abbey.
Our live coverage
Join the Post’s fascinator-clad team of editors and reporters offers up a regal assortment of royal wedding live commentary, photos, ceremonial play-by-play and reaction from London and beyond.
Royal roundup: ‘Super fan’ secures his spot on the streets of London
Even though the big day isn’t until Friday, one diehard fan has already claimed his wedding-watching spot. Clad in Union Jack patterned clothing and holding a flag bearing Will and Kate’s face, John Loughrey became the first person to set up camp to ensure he gets a good view of the Royal Wedding. As the Daily Mail reports, Mr. Loughrey, who calls himself a “super fan,” has camped out at Royal-related events in the past, including every single inquest into the death of Princess Diana.
Breast milk ‘Baby Gaga’ ice cream is London’s newest luxury dessert: “What could be more natural than fresh, free-range mothers milk in an ice cream?”
Breast milk ice cream is London’s latest food double dare: the breast-milk-infused flavour “Baby Gaga,” is now available at the Icecreamists restaurant in London’s Covent Garden. Icecreamists founder Matt O’Connor is confident that his take on the “miracle of motherhood” will catch on, even at at £14 pounds, or $22 a serving. “The Baby Gaga tastes creamy and rich.” (Photo: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images)
Bubbly Kate and William launch lifeboat
Kate Middleton got a taste of life as a working royal Thursday when she and Prince William dedicated a lifeboat in their first official appearance since their engagement. (Photo: Dylan Martinez/Reuters)
Seems you don’t get to launch real ships until you’re an actual royal.
