Monday 3 May 2010

WHO issues warning about corruption of pharmaceutical industry

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently issued a fact sheet warning about the corruption and unethical practices that are endemic to every step of the pharmaceuticals business.

"Corruption in the pharmaceutical sector occurs throughout all stages of the medicine chain, from research and development to dispensing and promotion," the fact sheet reads.

The medicine chain refers to each step involved in getting drugs into the hands of patients, including drug creation, regulation, management and consumption. According to WHO data, unethical practices such as bribery, falsification of evidence, and mismanagement of conflicts of interest are "common throughout the medicine chain." more...

Teen girls bribed to get Gardasil vaccine with shopping vouchers

The British National Health Service (NHS) has begun bribing teenage girls between the ages of 16 and 18 to get Gardasil vaccines. Officials are giving shopping vouchers worth the equivalent of roughly $70 to girls who agree to get jabbed with the vaccine, which has been implicated in numerous cases of severe harm and death.

Officials from NHS Birmingham East and North have initiated the pilot program which is costing taxpayers the equivalent of about $35,000. No parental consent is required in order for young girls to participate in the program. more...

Neurologist Dr. Fred Baughman talks about the fraud of ADHD and the poisoning of U.S. children

Hello everyone, this is Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, and I'm talking about the mythical disease known as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and the overmedication of the population, with Dr. Fred Baughman. I want to give you a little background about why I'm so interested in interviewing you. Our readers will really appreciate your information, because we cover this subject quite extensively. We have similar views on it and there is a lot of increasing interest out there. more...

The next PM must face up to New Labour's corrosive legacy

The era of government that is about to end was utterly and outrageously disfigured by the rivalry of Blair and Brown. Private hissy fits were translated into public policy. Why is Brown now in favour of foundation hospitals, which he so viciously opposed in 2003? Because in 2003 it was Blair's idea, not his. Accountability and transparency were lost in the mire of "sofa government". The gang was all that counted.

And their legacy will be deep and lasting. Not just a public debt of £167 billion, unreformed public services, a broken society, and Armed Forces deplorably overstretched and under-resourced. What the New Labour gang grasped was that post-war Britain, though not quite a social democracy, had grown utterly dependent upon the state in all its manifestations. Margaret Thatcher had saved the country from economic perdition, ended the stranglehold of the unions, and nurtured a culture of enterprise, self-reliance, and share and council house ownership. But she had not truly weaned the electorate off government: the corrosive belief that "they" – some bureaucracy, the gentleman in Whitehall – can and should do everything for us. It is the great British paradox: the only thing we dislike more than intrusion is being left to our own devices. more...

U.S. Dollar Doomsday Crash 2010, Protect Your Wealth With Gold

If you think that what’s happening to the bankrupt economies of Greece, Portugal, and Spain are merely a sideshow in this great financial crisis, it’s only fair to warn you:

The facts I reveal in this bulletin are shocking … shameful … and, to anyone who cares as much about this nation as I do, deeply disturbing

If these facts upset you, I apologize — but for the past 32 years, my mission has been to help investors protect themselves and profit in every imaginable investment environment.

I am not about to stop now — because in investing as in life, only the truth will set you free. more...

(For those of you who don't know who Larry Edelson, the author of this article, is, he writes and works for Martin Weiss at Money and Markets- a guy who regularily speaks to US senate committes on financial affairs. These people are Bond/US Treasury dealers and 'paper bulls' who a year ago wouldn't have touched gold with a barge pole so when they're saying 'get out of paper and get into gold' you know the game is almost up)

World Press Freedom Day reminds us that information is democracy's oxygen

Many journalists pay a high price for the public's right to know

Today is World Press Freedom Day and there is much to celebrate in a world where affordable and fast technologies enable journalists to break news and report from all the corners of the world in real time.

There is also much to be concerned about, as journalists, photographers, bloggers and other writers face increasing risks to their personal safety in many parts of the globe where illegitimate regimes and criminal cartels push back against the brave efforts of media workers to report human rights abuses, corruption, environmental degradation and criminal activity. more...

Economic reality hits home at last

This election already has one clear winner: the Institute for Fiscal Studies. There was a day last week when every second sentence on the Today programme seemed to begin "the Institute for Fiscal Studies says". None of the politicians interviewed dared to challenge frontally the IFS figures on public spending cuts. The same happened on Question Time with David Dimbleby.

Yet what those figures revealed was devastating. They showed that none of the parties has even begun to level with us about the scale of the public spending cuts that await us. What they have so far identified is less than a third of what will be needed to reduce the structural deficit: the Lib Dems being clearest and most upfront, but still a long way off. more...

Paper reveals EU plan to boost GM crop cultivation

Europe faces a major overhaul in the way it deals with genetically modified (GM) crops, after the European Commission sparked controversy with new plans to circumvent its cumbersome legislative review process.

The EU executive wants to let national governments decide whether or not to grow genetically modified crops without a long drawn-out review of the bloc's current GM legislation, an initial impact assessment seen by Reuters showed.

Details of the plan, which would open the door to widespread GM cultivation in Europe, provoked a furious reaction from environmentalists already angry at the EU executive's decision to approve the commercial growing of a GM potato in March. more...

US oil slick could trigger 'double-dip' recession: analyst

The massive oil slick threatening the Gulf of Mexico's coastline could wreck the US economy's fragile recovery and lead to a "double-dip" recession, an investment firm warned Monday.

A market commentary from Cumberland Advisors said the bill from the Deepwater Horizon disaster may ultimately run into hundreds of billions of dollars and leave an economic impact that will be felt for a generation. more...

GLOBAL WARMING IS A LOAD OF HOT AIR

CLIMATE change has been the biggest concern for a whole generation. Now, however, a brilliant scientist has come up with proof that man is not to blame - and no problem exists.

Fill your tank with petrol, book another holiday, turn that patio heater up to 11 and breathe a deep sigh of relief: the theory that humans are responsible for global warming is as good as dead, thanks to an amazing new discovery by one of America’s top meteorologists. more...

Vision of EU superpower dims in Greek debt crisis

When Britain joined what was the European Economic Community, Prime Minister Edward Heath told diplomats from Australia, Canada and New Zealand over dinner that Europe would become a superpower and put the United States in the shade.

The Canadian envoy was brave enough to challenge Heath but when his guests had left, the Conservative prime minister turned to an aide and said: "The poor old Canadian. He doesn't get it, does he?"

Heath's words sound at best naive nearly four decades later. more...

LIB DEM VOTERS SAY NO TO NICK CLEGG'S MIGRANTS ‘AMNESTY’

LIBERAL Democrat voters oppose Nick Clegg’s plan to give citizenship to long-standing illegal immigrants, a poll shows. more...

10 Reasons To Delete Your Facebook Account

After some reflection, I've decided to delete my account on Facebook. I'd like to encourage you to do the same. This is part altruism and part selfish. The altruism part is that I think Facebook, as a company, is unethical. The selfish part is that I'd like my own social network to migrate away from Facebook so that I'm not missing anything. In any event, here's my "Top Ten" reasons for why you should join me and many others and delete your account. more...

The Orwellian logic that's turning the faith Britain was built on into a crime

Terrifying as this may seem, the attempt to stamp out Christianity in Britain appears to be gathering pace.

Dale McAlpine was preaching to shoppers in Workington, Cumbria, that homosexuality is a sin when he found himself carted off by the police, locked up in a cell for seven hours and charged with using abusive or insulting words or behaviour.

It appears that two police community support officers - at least one of whom was gay - claimed he had caused distress to themselves and members of the public.
Under our anti-discrimination laws, such distress is not to be permitted. more...

UK: All political parties plan attacks on public sector pensions

For months now, Britain’s corporate bosses, right-wing think-tanks, the media and the political parties have been waging a ferocious attack on occupational pensions in the public sector, calling them “gold plated” and unfair when compared with the private sector.

The Institute of Economic Affairs, just such a right-wing think-tank, wrote a pamphlet whose title, Sir Humphrey’s legacy: an update. UK public sector unfunded occupational pensions, implies that all public servants get the pension of a fictional top civil servant. The Taxpayers Alliance talks of £1 million pensions in the National Health Service. more...

Greeks Celebrate IMF/ECB Bailout By Blowing Up Athens HSBC Branch

Zero Hedge will not report on any of today's so-called Greece bailout news, because a) this is not news and b) Greece will still go bankrupt. According to latest polls, 53% of Germans oppose the bailout, with just 39% approving it. Guess what - same thing in Greece: per Reuters, "Opinion polls show the public opposes the measures and more than half of those asked in a recent survey said they would join protests against them." In other news, Greece has just expressed its appreciation of bankers and the European Commission, who as of noon today run the country, by blowing up an Athens HSBC branch. more...

Bond market traders poised for unprecedented 1am gilts sell-off on election night

Traders will be able to buy and sell government bonds at 1am on Friday morning for the first time so that they can react to the outcome of the general election.
The London futures market (LIFFE) will open just three hours after polls close so that traders will have the chance to dump gilts if a hung parliament is looking likely.
It is the first time that the LIFFE futures exchange has opened during the night and all eyes will be on the gilt market as investors give an instant verdict on the poll results. more...

Right-wing protesters in stand-off with riot police over plans for £18m 'mega mosque'

Riot police were in a stand-off today with ring-wing protesters who stormed the site of a planned 'super mosque'.

Two members of the far-right English Defence League scaled the roof of a derelict building in Dudley, West Midlands, yesterday waving anti-Muslim banners.

They climbed to the rooftop on Sunday evening as dozens of protesters gathered at the site after an internet campaign by the EDL. more...

High-Tech Death from Above: U.S. Drone Wars Fuel War Crimes

As America continues its uncontrolled flight towards disaster, Israeli-style "targeted killings" (assassinations) of alleged militants and unarmed civilians in the "Afpak theatre" are on the rise.

With indiscriminate attacks by armed drones soaring since President Obama was sworn into office, the Pentagon's mad dash to achieve what it describes as "full-spectrum dominance" in this regional "battlespace," has sought to leverage its dominant position as the world leader in robotized forms of state killing and obtain a decisive technological edge over their adversaries. more...

Military Dominance: Obama's Fake Nuclear Disarmament Initiative allows the U.S. to Assert its Global Military Hegemony

Experts say that U.S. missile defences and Prompt Global Strike weapons, far from promoting nuclear disarmament, may trigger a new arms race.

Hardly had Russia and the United States signed a nuclear arms reduction treaty, New START, the U.S. pushed ahead with the development of new conventional weapon systems that threaten to stall nuclear disarmament and discredit U.S. non-proliferation efforts at the NPT Review Conference opening in New York on Monday.

Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee Strategic Forces Subcommittee on April 15 Lieutenant General Patrick J. O'Reilly, U.S. Missile Defence Agency Director, said that his agency was going full steam with development of “advanced capability” anti-missile systems.

It is precisely this type of capability in missile defence that Russia said would force it to walk away from the New START treaty. more...

Obama's Threat to Launch a Nuclear Attack on Iran

By now, most everybody knows that the (2003-) Bush-Cheney Iraq War was based on fiction and on deception. There was no such thing as “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq, the rationale for an illegal attack against that country. And Bush II and his accomplices knew that.

But incredibly, just as the Bush-Cheney administration did in order to launch a war against Iraq in 2003 by (falsely) alleging that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, the Obama-Biden administration, in 2010, is arguing for unilateral sanctions against Iran and even beating the drums of war against Iran, alleging that its program to enrich uranium and operate nuclear power plants is posing an existential threat to Israel, to Europe and to the United States. more...

The Fiction of Freedom in America: The "American Dream" of Social Inequality, Discrimination and Poverty

America itself is a psy op, and the American Dream a "hollow-gram." George Carlin said they call it the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it. Potemkin America creates a protective barrier, a moat between an "opulent minority" of castle-dwellers and the immiserated majority of consumer-serfs who live in the lower reaches of the economic village. The "opulent minority" purposefully perpetuates this situation as the means to ill-gotten gains, amassed by appropriating the "surplus" value produced by workers, whose labor creates the real wealth of society. more...

US Threatens to Nuke Iran and Anyone Else it Feels like Nuking.

The 2010 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference will convene from 3-28 May 2010 in New York. This year's conference - as with previous years' - promises to be yet another battle between the developing and the nuclear-armed nations. The US insists that the NPT needs to be rewritten so as to place greater limits on what it calls "nuclear weapons proliferation" whilst the developing nations say that the concern over proliferation is being used as a pretext by the US to avoid its own obligations under the same treaty to disarm its own nukes and to share nuclear technology with everyone else. This year, the same conflict will likely continue, and the US (and the US media) will of course try to blame it on Iran when in fact the emphasis on disarmament is shared by a number of countries called the New Agenda Coalition that includes Brazil, New Zealand and Egypt, and is not limited to Iran. more...

The rise of the robo-fighters: Britain's new pilotless air force

The aircraft is the size of a medium range bomber, with huge grey wings stretching 70ft across the hangar. It looks for all the world like any conventional aircraft - the wings, the nose, the wheels are all familiar. The engineers standing in front of it are dwarfed by its bulk. Modules beneath the wings can carry air-to-ground missiles and precision-guided bombs.

Other racks on the nose can carry surveillance equipment so advanced it can decrypt and listen to mobile phone messages instantly as it flies over, at heights of up to 60,000ft. It takes a while for you to notice the most important fact - there is no cockpit. There are no windows anywhere on the craft, - and no doors. more...

Postal voting surge brings warnings of electoral fraud

The Guardian are running this piece on voting fraud, looks like Kerry Mc Carthy has had her collar felt, or at least will do soon...Yessss!!!Fraud Article

New poll puts Cameron on course for slim majority as election goes down to the wire.

David Cameron could now be on course to secure a narrow outright majority thanks to a late surge in key marginal seats, according to a new poll.

The Ipsos Mori survey indicates a 7 per cent swing to the Conservatives from Labour which could be just enough to put them in power, with a slim majority of around two seats.

More......

Firefighters called to 71 homes after thieves cause massive power surge.

Firefighters were called out to 71 homes today after the theft of cables from an electricity substation caused a massive power surge.

Panicked residents dialled 999 after their houses began to fill with smoke and household appliances caught fire. In some cases, people heard the sound of a small explosion as fuse boxes blew out.

The massive power surge in Westhoughton, Bolton was caused after thieves stole a vital part of cabling from an energy sub-station.

Read more:

Oh, Mann: Cuccinelli targets UVA papers in Climategate salvo

No one can accuse Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli of shying from controversy. In his first four months in office, Cuccinelli  directed public universities to remove sexual orientation from their anti-discrimination policies, attacked the Environmental Protection Agency, and filed a lawsuit challenging federal health care reform. Now, it appears, he may be preparing a legal assault on an embattled proponent of global warming theory who used to teach at the University of Virginia, Michael Mann. More....

A Reminder...Arrest Blair for War Crimes Reward

Its only a short while since this campaign started and folks he's now back in Britain, for your chance to get your hands on some money for a good cause why not have a go yourself, for more details see Arrest Blair, there is also a facebook site Here , Theres still £10,992.95 in the kitty according to the site and as far as I'm aware the offer still stands.
Don't forget now, a BIG HANDFUL of cash could be yours just for trying...
previous winners include:
Grace Mc Cann=£2,619.67 (well done Grace)
David Cronin=£2,801.98 (Good work Dave)

UK Nuclear Subs Went To Sea With Potentially Disastrous Effect

Two British nuclear submarines went to sea with a potentially disastrous safety problem that left both vessels at risk of a catastrophic accident.

Safety valves designed to release pressure from steam generators in an emergency were completely sealed off when the nuclear hunter killers Turbulent and Tireless left port, a leaked memo discloses.

The problem went undetected on HMS Turbulent for more than two years, during which time the vessel was on operations around the Atlantic, and visited Bergen in Norway, the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, and Faslane naval base near Glasgow.

It was not noticed on HMS Tireless for more than a year, and was finally detected last month, two months after Tireless started sea trials from its home port at Devonport naval base in Plymouth.   More...

UK hotel insolvencies soar during recession

The number of hotel firms that failed last year rose 61% compared with 2008, accountancy firm Wilkins Kennedy says.

People holidaying at home boosted room demand but a slump in business travel and problems getting bank loans is said to have affected companies. more...

’Terminal’ cuts loom at World Service

THE BBC World Service is braced for the loss of up to a quarter of its budget.

Executives are planning for cuts of 18%-25% after Foreign Office officials indicated its £272m annual budget would be reduced from April next year.

A World Service source said the effect of a 25% cut would be “pretty much terminal”. more...

'Parents should be fined for malicious attacks on teachers'

TEACHERS and politicians in Scotland have offered qualified support to a suggestion that parents should face fines for making "malicious and frivolous" allegations against staff.

Mick Brookes, general secretary of the National Association of the Head Teachers (NAHT) in England, believes it is wrong that parents are able to make unfounded complaints "with impunity. more...

Tories' sole Scottish MP hopes to become Secretary of State

He may not be the match of the lean, slick, salesman we have come to expect of our political leaders (on the contrary, he is a roly-poly, slightly bumbling figure) but within less than a week, Mr Mundell could be transformed from national curiosity — the only Tory MP north of the border — into Secretary of State for Scotland. more...

Audience participation is to be applauded at Scots leaders’ debate

If they had come for the pantomine at Christmas it is unlikely that there would have been the same level of audience participation. Sixteen hundred people packed the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh tonight for the last Scottish Leaders’ Debate and unlike in the UK version the audience was encouraged to applaud, sneer and cheer.
more...

Conservatives: Scottish seats are not needed to rule

THE Conservatives have insisted that they would still have a mandate to rule in Scotland even if they return only a handful of Scottish MPs to the House of Commons.

With only three full days of campaigning left, the latest polls suggest that the "Cameron effect" is failing to have any impact on Scottish voters, unlike in England and Wales. more...

Polling: Food for Thought.

From The Geek

Elvis appearance opposite Gordon Brown sparks investigation

He was hailed by Alastair Campbell as the "megastar" who would boost Gordon Brown's flagging election campaign, but an Elvis impersonator has left Labour feeling all shook up.

Mandrake learns that Corby borough council is investigating whether the performance at the weekend breached the Licensing Act.

Under the Act, Campbell, the organiser of the event, and Waterworth, the licence holder, could face criminal prosecution resulting in six months in prison or a £20,000 fine more...

Sovereign debt and the interest rate time bomb

So far the UK appears to have come off lightly compared to Greece. This is owing to the huge devaluation in the UK currency, which means a lot of the hit on living standards which Greece is now taking from wage cuts is happening in the UK from surging import prices and a rate of inflation well above wage increases. It has also owed a lot so far to £200 billion of money printing, something Greece cannot do for itself as a Euro memebr. This has kept UK official interest rates and government borrowing rates artificially low. It gets a lot tougher when rates rise further: then the taxpayer gets sandbagged by the increased costs of servicing the rising debts. The state borrows more to pay the interest! more...

Cameron targets 'Big Brother' state

David Cameron will launch a radical programme to slash bureaucracy, reform public services and roll back the "surveillance state" within weeks of the General Election if he wins power on Thursday.

The first legislative programme of a Conservative administration would include a Great Repeal Bill to dismantle Labour's "Big Brother" legislation by scrapping ID cards and home information packs, restoring jury trial in complex cases and abolishing powers of bailiffs and council tax inspectors to enter homes. more...

Importing Third World Culture: “Serious” Vote Fraud Reported in Muslim Stronghold in East London

In yet another example of how Third World culture is being imported into Britain via mass immigration, police have announced that they are investigating a string of “serious electoral fraud” incidents in Muslim-dominated areas of East London.

According to reports, Scotland Yard is currently “assessing” 28 separate allegations while a newspaper investigation claims to have uncovered several cases in Tower Hamlets.

Tower Hamlets was earlier identified as an Islamist stronghold with radical organisations having seized control of local Tweedledee Tweedledum party organisations. more...

Migrants will boost population by 1.1m in five years

The UK population is on course to rise by an extra 1.1 million people over the term of the next parliament as a result of mass immigration, a study will claim this week.

The report – based on an analysis of official Government figures – raises concerns that the population growth will place strain on public services.

The study, by the think tank MigrationWatch, says the UK population is set to increase from 62.2 million to 64.3 million between now and 2015.

More than half of that growth will be caused by immigration, taking account both of people who move to the UK from overseas, and of babies born to migrants. more...

£300BN HAS BEEN WASTED ON PUBLIC SERVICES

A SHOCKING £300billion has been wasted due to public service inefficiency since Gordon Brown came to power, it emerged last night.

Mismanagement and a spend-spend-spend culture have seen soaring amounts of taxpayers’ cash effectively poured down the drain. more...

UK FACES MASSIVE BILL TO BAIL OUT EUROPE’S COLLAPSING ECONOMIES

BRITAIN could have to foot part of a £425billion bill following Greece’s economic collapse, it emerged last night.

As part of the International Monetary Fund, the UK could be called on to contribute to bail-outs for other countries following the agreement of yesterday’s Greek rescue package. more...

Boy, 14, beaten to the brink of death for his iPod

Surrounded by tubes and medical technology, a 14-year-old boy clings to life in intensive care.

Tyler Molloy was beaten nearly to death by a gang of teenagers after they stole his iPod.

He was in a coma for two days and will not be able to return to school until September at the earliest. more...

Pakistan on verge of bankruptcy

“The ratings agency Standard and Poor’s has given Pakistan’s sovereign debt a grade of CCC +, which stands only a few notches above the default level. The agency gave warning that Pakistan may be unable to cover about $3 billion in upcoming debt payments.” more...

War of Rights.

Angry Exile, upside down correspondent.

If ever an example were needed of why state defined and granted rights are a bad idea it's this.

A Christian street preacher was arrested and locked in a cell for telling a passer-by that homosexuality is a sin in the eyes of God.
Dale McAlpine was charged with causing “harassment, alarm or distress” after a homosexual police community support officer (PCSO) overheard him reciting a number of “sins” referred to in the Bible, including blasphemy, drunkenness and same sex relationships.
...
Mr McAlpine was handing out leaflets explaining the Ten Commandments or offering a “ticket to heaven” with a church colleague on April 20, when a woman came up and engaged him in a debate about his faith.
During the exchange, he says he quietly listed homosexuality among a number of sins referred to in 1 Corinthians, including blasphemy, fornication, adultery and drunkenness.
After the woman walked away, she was approached by a PCSO who spoke with her briefly and then walked over to Mr McAlpine and told him a complaint had been made, and that he could be arrested for using racist or homophobic language.
The street preacher said he told the PCSO: “I am not homophobic but sometimes I do say that the Bible says homosexuality is a crime against the Creator”.
He claims that the PCSO then said he was homosexual and identified himself as the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender liaison officer for Cumbria police. Mr McAlpine replied: “It’s still a sin.”
The preacher then began a 20 minute sermon, in which he says he mentioned drunkenness and adultery, but not homosexuality. Three regular uniformed police officers arrived during the address, arrested Mr McAlpine and put him in the back of a police van.
[taking the opportunity to record his fingerprints and a DNA sample for the database, natch - AE]
Now the problem here is a clash of the rights culture. McAlpine has a right to practice his religion and hold his beliefs - it says so in Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which the UK made law in 1998.

15 - love to Mr McAlpine.

And he's also got the right to say so in public (Article 10). 30 - love .

The unnamed PCSO has a right to his sexual orientation and can point to legislation "outlawing inciting hatred on the grounds of sexuality" brought in by Jack Straw. 30 all. He can also point out that Article 9 of the ECHR says that religious freedom is subject to:
...such limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of public safety, for the protection of public order, health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.
30 - 40.

But then McAlpine can say that the legislation that extends the hate crime law to include incidents where sexual orientation is involved has a clause that says:
... for the avoidance of doubt, the discussion or criticism of sexual conduct or practices or the urging of persons to refrain from or modify such conduct or practices shall not be taken of itself to be threatening or intended to stir up hatred.
Deuce, and as long as politicians and ministers continue to grant rights to both groups in the interests of freedom and fairness - admittedly perfectly noble goals - we're probably going to be stuck there more or less indefinitely.

What we have is a system of rights that are not only granted by the government, and are therefore subject to the whim of whatever party happens to be running it at the time, but are also liable to be mutually contradictory and conflict with each other. What we need is not more of the same but a something far simpler. In such a system Mr McAlpine simply would be free from being persecuted for his beliefs and the PCSO would be free from being persecuted for his sexuality. Both can find the other's opinions or lifestyle offensive, immoral or even thoroughly repugnant. McAlpine would be free even to stand on his ladder screaming that the PCSO was going to hell for eternity, and the PCSO would be free to yell through a bullhorn that McAlpine's problem is that he lives according to what he thinks a non-existent god told Charlton Heston four thousand years ago, but as long as that's about as far as it goes then both must let the other get on with it. They might not like it, and they certainly might not like each other, but since there'd be no call on them to that doesn't matter, and each would have the same amount of freedom: to live, speak and do exactly as they wish up to the point they prevent the other from doing likewise, and no further.

The term for this is not 'rights' but 'liberty', and it's important not to get confused about which one of the two you actually have.

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