'The director of Romeo And Juliet at Shakespeare's original theatre will meet police today over fears that it glamorises violence. Bill Buckhurst is preparing a free production of the tragic love story for 10,000 teenagers at the Globe Theatre in central London. "It is about taking responsibility and having awareness that knife crime touches on the lives of so many teenagers in London. These scenes must not be seen to glamorise it."'
'There have been 24 incidents since December 29, including an arson attack on a synagogue in London. In Golders Green, also in north west London, a Jewish man was pulled from his car and assaulted by three men. In the same area a gang of youths attempted to enter Jewish shops while shouting "Jew". In Manchester, "Hamas HQ" was written in graffiti on a Jewish building.'
'Parts of the UK have become so heavily dependent on government spending that the private sector is generating less than a third of the regional economy. The government’s share of output and expenditure has now surged to more than 60% in some areas of England and over 70% elsewhere. Across the whole of the UK, 49% of the economy will consist of state spending, while in Wales, the figure will be 71.6%. The state now looms far larger in many parts of Britain than it did in former Soviet satellite states such as Hungary and Slovakia as they emerged from communism in the 1990s, when state spending accounted for about 60% of their economies.'
'Geert Wilders, an outspoken anti-Islamist, was scheduled to visit London on Thursday for a screening of his controversial film Fitna, at the invitation of Lord Pearson, the Ukip peer. Mr Wilders said that he received a letter from the British ambassador yesterday, telling him that he was not welcome because his visit would "threaten community harmony and therefore public security". Replied Maxime Verhagen, the Dutch Foreign Secretary, "The fact that a Dutch parliamentarian is refused entry to another EU country is highly regrettable."'
'Islamic law has been officially adopted in Britain, with sharia courts given powers to rule on Muslim civil cases. The government has quietly sanctioned the powers for sharia judges to rule on cases ranging from divorce and financial disputes to those involving domestic violence. Rulings issued by a network of five sharia courts are enforceable with the full power of the judicial system.'
