Inshallah at some stage the learning cliff-face will be conquered and I'll emerge either into a fertile plain of relative competence, or a bleak, windswept plateau of not quite up to it. I reckon either way it'll be another three or four weeks.
One or two things that caught my eye.
Blackburn - twinned with Abbottabad. I thought the point of these school twinning arrangements was for the children to learn about other, unfamiliar cultures - in which case why choose Abbottabad, whose culture will be familiar to the pupils of Daisyfield School, most of whom are of Pakistani heritage? If they wanted to expose the children to an unfamiliar culture, why not a school in, say, Petersfield or Winchester?
The Conservative pledge to cut immigration looks like another one of David Cameron's cast-iron guarantees.
"Net migration in to the UK soared by almost half last year and is now close to the record levels of 2005. It is the fifth quarter in a row that net immigration has risen signalling a worrying upward trend. And two of the main drivers were a slump in emigration and a sharp rise in Eastern Europeans coming to the UK for work – two areas that will not be affected by the Government’s annual cap or other immigration measures. "Three points here. One is that the counting immigration only in net terms is a neat way of ignoring the demographic transformation illustrated in the Blackburn link above. If all the native English were to emigrate and be replaced by incomers, net immigration would be zero and the BBC would doubtless headline that immigration WAS zero. To a large extent headline immigration figures have been reduced by the massive UK brain drain, as young natives with degrees leave to be replaced by young Afghans and Somalis.
Two is that the left and IPPR argument - "they're only here for the booming economy and they'll go home when there's a downturn" doesn't seem to have reflected reality. I'm shocked.
Three is that Cameron is so serious about cutting immigration that 5,000 jobs are going at the UK border agency. While that agency is useless, corrupt and incompetent, I'm not sure increasing its workload and reducing its staffing levels is going to improve it.
The TB jab returns? Only a few short years after declaring victory over tuberculosis, we're importing it at such a rate we've got to start all over again.
26.5% of primary school pupils are now ethnic minority, up from 23% in 2008. The destruction of what was, with all its faults, one of the best places in the world to live continues.
A Department of Health spokesman said: "We recognise that tuberculosis is a serious issue in London, particularly in more deprived boroughs and among the migrant community."
"Crucially, both the public and health care professionals need to be aware that TB is back, and growing fast."
Still, say not the struggle naught availeth, what ?
13 comments:
I love the word 'heritage', as in 'Pakistani heritage'.
It takes up space but adds no actual additional meaning.
Can I ask a question that is wildly off topic? Why do I find so many English bloggers using the word "Inshallah"? It is sarcastic, or has it actually entered your vocabulary, like an American saying "bro"?
If we import the Third World we import their attitudes and diseases.
I know an immigrant who came here for free housing. If anyone thinks she will ever leave they must be smoking drugs.
Work is the curse of the blogging classes. Something must be done. Bogus insurance claim? Send your rich uncle on a one-way trip to Switzerland?
"One is that the counting immigration only in net terms is a neat way of ignoring the demographic transformation illustrated in the Blackburn link above."
You can actually get these data from ONS. E.g.,
2010
Total immigration: 586,000
Total emigration: 344,000
Total net: 242,00
Non-EU immigration: 312,000
Non-EU emigration: 97,000
Non-EU net: 215,000
A8 immigration: 72,000
A8 emigration: 29,000
A8 net: 43,000
AFAICS, the ONS haven't released the figure for British citizen migration. ONS will publish final estimates of 2010 migration flows in the autumn and this includes series for foreign and British migration.
Interesting post here, the last comment in the thread, sums it up
CyrusSpitama
24 June 2011 8:39AM
This debate has become a microcosm of the gulf of perception that multiculturalism has created in this country.
People here believe they are debating but they are not. They are talking at one another using language that neither party understands.
ShaSha25 and azzyakbar use the term “British” to describe themselves and the ethnic Pakistani and Bangladeshi peoples that live in this country. Indeed azzyakbar considers “British” to be his idenity.
However, to other posters here and the supporters of the EDL the term “British” is now utterly meaningless.
As left-wing columnists repeat constantly on CIF, there is no such thing as “British” culture. One cannot say anymore that their ethnic origin is “British”. Indeed, according to the left, the ‘indigenous’ white population here don’t even have a country of ethnic origin, unlike every immigrant population that has settled here in the last 30-40 years.
Islam, Hinduism and Sikhism are all “British”. The burka is “British”. Speaking south Asian languages at home in the second and third generations is “British”. These days, even the arranged marriage to a cousin in Pakistan is a venerable “British” tradition.
Indeed, anyone and everyone can now be described as “British”.
But not “English”. No, not “English”.
azzyakbar, you stated: “Don't try and take my identity away from me.”
Many white English people would argue, with some justification, that their identity is progressively being taken from them.
Understand these points and you’ll begin to understand the unfairness, pain and anger that has created the rather unpleasant sectarianism of the EDL.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jun/21/edl-march-white-working-class
The last bit rather lets it down - "unpleasant sectarianism"
In such an unprecedented disaster if there is a way out, it is bound to be an unpleasant one. It certainly will be "naught availeth" unless the nettle is grasped
The EDL are the only game in town; the bravery of Tommy Robinson is impressive and he does pretty well when the regime tries to put him in the worst possible light in TV interviews.
I hope to God nobody is still looking to Westminster for salvation
'One is that the counting immigration only in net terms is a neat way of ignoring the demographic transformation illustrated in the Blackburn link above'.
Sadly the 'net migration' qualifier is part of the faux 'debate' which seeks to restrict discussion of immigration to its economic effects only. Debate around the deeper consequences of immigration, and its effects on the social fabric of what was once a remarkably homogenous polity (despite the claims of the 'nation of immigrants' crowd) is pretty well off limits in polite society. In this climate, it is hardly surprising that the research of someone like Robert Putnam moulders in obscurity across the Anglosphere- despite the uncomfortable truths it reveals.
26.5% of primary school pupils are now ethnic minority.
From what I observe in both primary and secondary schools in the Capital, in many boroughs - notably Haringey, Hackney, Southwark, Tower Hamlets and Newham - pupils from minority backgrounds make up about two-thirds of the overall total.
The pace of change is alarming.
Mark
"Debate around the deeper consequences of immigration, and its effects on the social fabric of what was once a remarkably homogenous polity (despite the claims of the 'nation of immigrants' crowd) is pretty well off limits in polite society."
Well I guess that leaves impolite society then
Foxy
"The pace of change is alarming."
It may well be that a huge urban area becomes simply unsustainable - especially when the banks go under(eg greek credit default swops)
Holding the food producing areas is the thing; the very highly enriched areas are still small in terms of square miles. Every time I go though Sparkbrook in Brum I am struck by considerations of population density. It's apparent on the streets, but that is only a fraction of it; large Victorian terraces with three stories and large bedrooms.
I don't know how they can live on top of each other the way they do. The individual hardly seems to count
"I don't know how they can live on top of each other the way they do."
Sgt - our forebears lived like that not so very long ago. My mother was one of 8, her father was the youngest of 9, his father the eldest of (9 plus 4 infant deaths).
But the pace of change ... in the 60s there were 3 ethnic minority kids in my entire secondary school of about 900 pupils - charming Indian girls whose daddy taught at Brum Uni.
"Sgt - our forebears lived like that not so very long ago. My mother was one of 8, her father was the youngest of 9, his father the eldest of (9 plus 4 infant deaths)."
And we considered it 'progress' (the real sort) when we no longer had to...
Laban said...
"I don't know how they can live on top of each other the way they do."
Sgt - our forebears lived like that not so very long ago. My mother was one of 8, her father was the youngest of 9, his father the eldest of (9 plus 4 infant deaths)."
But they will never change
When they have over-bred our country where will they go then?
Greenland maybe
These people are alien and dangerous; all the grooming gang rape trials are a bit of a give away
Havering, exceptions, provisos will do us no good
As I said before you either have the will to survive or you don't; and in this mess it must be a will of iron.
At the moment Robinson is carrying the battle, further development on this line is essential. Radicalisation in the lower ranks of the forces is vital. The economics will dictate
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