One Woe Doth Tread Upon Another's Heel ...

... so fast they follow.

BBC Radio News are reporting around 900 prisoners whose nationality is not known, and about another 600 who claim to be British but whose status is doubtful. Making a total of 11,500-odd foreigners out of 72,000 prisoners.

Apparently Charles Clarke, when he offered his resignation to Blair and had it refused. hadn't bothered to tell him that another 300-odd had walked free after he (Clarke) knew about the problem. The rate of release actually accelerated after that.

If Clarke doesn't go for this, what DOES a minister resign for ?

Apparently we're unlikely to find the released murderers and rapists - despite the fact that they're supposed to be monitored. Shows how secure the whole early release system is.

"Sir David Normington, the department's permanent secretary, said attempts were being made to find more than 900 offenders who should have been considered for deportation when they left jail.

However, he was unable to give MPs a commitment that the information was available, despite the fact that murderers are released on life licences that should ensure they are routinely monitored"

In totally unrelated news, a murderer out on licence gets ANOTHER life sentence for raping a child. Perhaps the first life sentence should have actually meant what it said.

"After the case, West Yorkshire Probation service said public protection was its highest priority."

Of course it isn't - otherwise murderers would never be released.

In more totally unrelated news, we see how tough the system is on foreign criminals :

"The leader of an immigration scam that cost the taxpayer more than £500,000 has been jailed for four years.
Mohammed Faruq, 56, was at the head of a scam to bring over Pakistani relatives who then changed their names and applied for asylum and benefits.

He pleaded guilty to harbouring illegal immigrants and conspiracy to defraud.

Sixteen people have been convicted over false asylum claims and false benefit claims amounting to £611,000 in Oxford between 2000 and 2004.

According to council officials who investigated the case, Faruq - a well-known member of the East Oxford community and a social housing landlord - would provide them with emergency accommodation costing up to £235 a night then claimed rent back from the county council's social services. "

Fair enough - I presume Mr Faruq is an upstanding British citizen - although I'd happily do two years (you only serve half the sentence) for £500,000. Seems a decent pay rate. But what of the bogus asylum seeksrs, who'd come to the UK specifically to defraud taxpayers ?

"Most received suspended sentences and none of those brought into the country were recommended for deportation, on grounds of human rights and the fact that they now had children in the country, according to council officials."

On grounds of human rights, eh ? The human right to move to a country and defraud its citizens !

One last fatuity.

"We are looking to recover assets from Mr Faruq under the proceeds of Crime Act but this is still in the early stages. We are looking to recover a substantial sum of money."

You'd think Thames Valley Police would have heard of hawala.

If The Answer To The Question ...

is Rosie Winterton MP, what could the question be ?

Are The Prison Service Mad, Or Am I ?

Have a look at this list of PSIs (Prison Standing Instructions).

They appear to have forgotten the 'Hold Serious Foreign Offenders For Deportation' order, but this one's rather sweet.


Flying of national, European, Prison Service and company flags

10. Where an establishment has more than one flagstaff, the following flags may also be flown at the same time as the Union flag, but must not be in a superior position to it.
The Prison Service flag (except as detailed below)
For contracted out prisons, the relevant company’s flag (except as detailed below)
On St George’s Day, the national flag must be flown in preference to the Prison Service or company flag at establishments in England
On St David’s Day, the national flag must be flown in preference to the Prison Service or company flag at establishments in Wales
On Europe Day, the European flag must be flown in preference to the Prison Service or company flag

However, outside of St George's Day, the English flag is banned as racist.

The PSIs cover the serious issues. After all, who really cares about a few more murderers or rapists on the streets when there's stuff like this to worry about ?


12. The different Pagan denominations have their own spiritual philosophies, but these are generally in accord with the Three Principles of Paganism as defined by the Pagan Federation:

1) Love for and kinship with Nature. Reverence for the life force and its ever-renewing cycles of life and death.
2) A positive morality, in which the individual is responsible for the discovery and development of their true nature in harmony with the outer world and community. This is often expressed as ‘Do what you will, as long as it harms none'.
3) Recognition of the Divine, which transcends gender, acknowledging both the female and male aspect of Deity.

Looks like the prison service might be getting a new client soon. What was that again ?

Love for and kinship with Nature. Reverence for the life force and its ever-renewing cycles of life and death.

"In addition to shared interests in "money, paganism, sex, magic, and pills and potions", he and James liked to go to beaches together and watch sunsets."

Do what you will, as long as it harms none

"Peter Solheim suffered a gruesome death. He was murdered, having been sedated by a stupefying drug.

"His head and the joints of several of his limbs were targeted with blunt and sharp weapons either when he was dead or on the brink of death. His mutilated body was then dumped miles out at sea, his attackers thinking he was never to be seen again.

"Contrary to expectation, the body was spotted by fishermen within a few hours of it being dumped."

Reality Trumps Satire Again ...

Home Secretary Charles Clarke says he will not resign after 1,023 foreign prisoners were freed without being considered for deportation.

He said he does not know where most of the offenders, who include three murderers and nine rapists, are.

He admits that a growth in foreign prisoners had led to the Home Office taking its "eye off the ball".

The Guardian has details :

"The rules about deporting foreign nationals who serve a prison sentence in Britain are fairly straightforward and have not changed in recent years.

"Our policy has always been to consider serious offenders for deportation before release, or if that is not possible to make a decision about immigration detention, electronic monitoring or restriction orders before release," said Mr Clarke.

In practice the policy meant that any non-EU foreign national jailed for a serious crime - defined as a sentence of 12 months or more - was supposed to have the case for deportation considered before the end of his or her sentence. The Home Office said it had looked at 5,500 such cases in 2004 and 2005 and decided on deportation in 3,000 of them. In a minority of cases the court recommends that the individual should be deported at the end of their sentence - this was the case with 160 of the 1,023 foreign prisoners who had been overlooked."

I can't see why ANY offences short of a parking ticket shouldn't merit deportation - the above rules mean that quite serious thefts and assaults, or driving uninsured get past the 12 month sentence rule. But let it pass.

You can see how it would happen, of course. The Prison 'Service' is one of the most politically correct organisations in the country.

They have confessed to their institutional racism.

Like the police, they have 'targets' (not quotas - that would be racist) for ethnic minority staff.

Prison staff are prohibited from membership of organisations 'deemed to be racist'.

The way to honours and promotions is to exhibit anti-racism.

The flag of England is banned in prisons as a racist insignia.

In an environment like that, who's going to say :

"That chap Oluwale Mogambe - due for release next week. He's ... well ... he's not a foreigner, is he ?"

After all, there are plenty of British citizens with names like that. And you're in a service which is terrified of being seen as racist.

"What makes you ask that ?"

"Well .. he's got an unusual name"

"Could you just sit down for a minute ? I need to make a phone call."

"Governor ? I think we've got one"

"I'll be right down"

The great Aaronovitch said in 2003 that "there is no greater propensity among immigrants towards crime, prostitution and anti-social behaviour than among the population at large". In 2004 10% of the UK prison population were foreign nationals - around 7,000 people. The figure is now over 10,000. As I said before, if you accept the Aaronovitch thesis then these figures must simply reflect our racist criminal justice system.

In totally unrelated news, "Criminal gangs trading in people and fake ID are "out of control", senior police officers have told the BBC."

The Met does a nice line in understatement.

"This is an area, given the changes that are taking place in the nature of London, which is something that we should invest in."

And in more totally unrelated news, "a majority of people back the British National Party's policies, according to a new poll."

"It found that 59% of people supported a halt to all further immigration to the UK - one of the BNP's main pledges - when they were not told of the far-right group's association with the policy.

Among those who were told that it was a BNP commitment, support for the policy was only 48%."

The full survey is here. What's interesting - and I think reflects well on the English - is that the statement

Non-white British citizens are inherently ‘less British’ than
white citizens.

was opposed by 68% of respondents and only supported by 16% - and these were people who hadn't been asked the question in the context of the BNP (when the proportions fell to 76/11). These aren't people who want to start packing cattle trucks full of unfortunates.

Its numbers that are cheesing off the natives - and giving the BNP support - numbers, numbers, numbers. The demographics are such that we're already well on the way to seeing an ethnically divided polity.

A year or so back I wrote to two famous liberal columnists, asking them both the same question - do numbers matter in the immigration debate ?

One replied that I'd been reading the Daily Mail too much - a paper I have bought maybe twice in the last year - and pretty much concluded I'd been seduced by the tabloid agenda, whatever that means.

The other replied 'Really, the question's not worth answering. The government would never allow immigration to grow in such a way'.

You Can Run, But You Can't Hide

Left London for Shropshire or Gloucestershire, or maybe Dorset ? For the children, of course. Better schools, a slower pace of life, the city's 'frantic lifestyle' ?

Don't think you can get away from multicultural England that easily.


Professor Ted Cantle does his bit for the local election campaign by highlighting the fact that there are still some 'unhealthily white' towns in Derbyshire. Apparently such places are dangerous for ethnic minorities.

Professor Ted Cantle, who wrote the report on the 2001 riots in Bradford and Oldham, suggested people from ethnic minorities in some parts of the Midlands might not feel “safe and secure” living near predominantly white communities.

Just imagine a Government adviser and academic saying that our major cities were dangerous for white people because of their large ethnic minority populations.

He'd be out of a job before you could say Frank Ellis.

And he wouldn't get another one with Cheshire Police, either.

Police forces should be allowed to fast-track job applicants from ethnic minorities, despite the practice being against the law, a leading officer has claimed.

The Chief Constable of Cheshire, Peter Fahy, is appealing to the Government to change the law on positive discrimination to enable police chiefs to meet tough Home Office targets for increasing the number of black and Asian officers.

Whan is a quota not a quota ? When it's a target which your performance (and bonus) will be judged against.

Peter Fahy runs Sir Ian Blair pretty close in the race for the most PC PC. It's he who had the Bishop Of Chester investigated and consulted with the Crown Prosecution Service over the following hate speech :

"Some people who are primarily homosexual can reorientate themselves. I would encourage them to consider that as an option, but I would not set myself up as a medical specialist on the subject - that's in the area of psychiatric health."

Of course, such things never happen in the real world.

A Technical Query - any Techies Out There ?

In the happy steam-powered days of the 56k modem, you'd occasionally double-click the connection icon to see how many bytes you'd sent and received. You might find you'd sent a few 10s of K, and retrieved a few meg over an hour or so.

Not so since broadband.

I use a firewall (Zonealarm basic), Panda antivirus, Spybot monitoring the Windows config. Win2000 with service packs, IE6 with updates.

BT Voyager 205 ADSL router (I haven't tweaked this in any way, including the default password - should I ?)

Router goes to a Netgear switch and from there to three PCs.

For this and the previous post I've fired up the box, checked BBC news, searched my blog for the Falconer link, Google image search and Blogger. Connected for 18 minutes, received 2.5 meg, sent - a staggering 958K - nearly a meg for visits to 4 websites plus Google.

What on earth is all this data - and where the hell's it going ?

New Scam ?

EURO MILLIONS
Watford, Head Office and Regional Centre Euro Millions,
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WD18 9RN


REF NO: EML/ 56-TF-8890776
BATCH: 109/91300/EML

PRIZE AND AWARD NOTIFICATION


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Your company or your personal e-mail address, is attached to ticket number 9901-0148-790-691, with serial number 66109-17 drew the lucky numbers 990-11-815-37-10-83, and consequently won the lottery in the 2nd category.

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Tel: +44-7031947368

The header on the mail contains this :

Sun, 23 Apr 2006 17:51:40 +0400 (MSD)
Date: Sun, 23 Apr 2006 17:51:40 +0400 (MSD)
From: "euromillions2006"
Sender: euromillions2006@yandex.ru
Message-Id: <444B866C.000001.16447@soapbox.yandex.ru>
MIME-Version: 1.0
X-Mailer: Yamail [ http://yandex.ru ]
Errors-To: euromillions2006@yandex.ru
Subject: REVIEW AND RESPOND
Reply-To: euromillions2006@yandex.ru
X-Source-Ip: 64.201.33.9
X-Originating-Ip: 10.254.9.2

Hmmm.


The phone number (with 44 knocked off and 0 added) is provided by Magrathea, according to the ICSTIS website.

Men Without Religion ...

"Just can't keep in a righteous man's position."

Joel Edwards of the Evangelical Alliance expands this Gregory Isaacs theme.

"Politicians are happy to embrace the pragmatic benefits of Britain’s faith communities who now have a seat at every conceivable table of policy making in Britain. But this is happening precisely at a time when the volume of legislation is going against the values of religious communities on a whole range of moral issues from abortion and human sexuality to family life and education. Public servants want our goods but not necessarily our gods.

If we are to build better communities based on Respect, the idea that we are congenitally and corporately Fallen is a politically astute starting point. It means that mass murders, child abuse, racial intolerance or company fraud may disappoint us deeply but they will never shock us as we legislate against them. Politicians don’t have to preach about ‘sin’ and ‘Fallen-ness’ but these spiritual signposts should not be defaced in the name of progress or professionalism.

Consequently, Christian faith suggests that a recovery of a ‘culture of respect’ begins with a renewal of our Fallen-ness or at least recognition of our need for it. Great transitions in British culture have taken place as a result of changed values which have been internalised. This was true of the Reformation, Wesley’s revival and Wilberforce’s mission to abolish slavery and see a ‘reformation of manners’ As the French philosopher Tocqueville affirmed in his 18th century studies of American life it was the ‘habits of the heart’ which shaped the culture of the people"

Amen to that.

"Inevitably the individualisation of choice yields a harvest of personal moralities. Quiet simply it’s hard to know what’s right from wrong. Our society had a long run-up to our dysfunctional society. Asbo’s were a long time coming. A 1940 survey amongst teachers showed that the seven most serious matters for them included chewing gum, running in corridors and dropping litter. By comparison in 1990 teachers were complaining of problems such as guns, alcohol, suicide and assault"

"One thing is clear: in the absence of a moral consensus and apart from a willingness to share a common ancestry in God, legislation will fail to arrest our growing culture of disrespect."

"Philip Johnson is right to point out that since 1997 we have had over two dozen criminal justice acts introducing a catalogue of offences. “If the first wave of initiatives failed,” he asks, “why should the new measures succeed; and if they are working, why do we need even more?”[17] It is a reasonable question. In pursuing a new culture of respect the Government would do better to put more resources on informing attitudes rather than added to the maze of legislation."

Bang, bang, bang. Nails smacked firmly on head.

Joel Edwards came here from Jamaica when he was nine years old. If there are any Church of England bishops with his vision, or with his knowledge of British history and culture, they're keeping remarkably quiet about it.

The New St George

Written in 1971 by Richard Thompson, in the days when there were still factories and forges in England. Prophetic stuff.


The time has come for action
Leave your satisfaction
Can’t you hear St. George’s tune
St. George’s tune is calling you on
Freedom was your mother
Fight for one another
Leave the factory, leave the forge
And dance to the new St. George

Don’t believe pretenders
Who say they would defend us
While they flash their teeth and wave
The other hand is being paid
They choke the air and bleed us
These noble men who lead us
Leave the factory, leave the forge
And dance to the new St. George

The fish and fowl are ailing
The farmer’s life is failing
Where are all the backroom boys
You backroom boys won’t save us now
We’re poisoned by the greedy
Who plunder off the needy
Leave the factory, leave the forge
And dance to the new St. George




Thompson was prophetic in his spiritual life, too. He had always been searching for meaning in life, and converted to Islam in 1974. He obviously wasn't inspired by the wishy-washy standards of contermporary Christianity. He's still a Muslim.

Talking of which, read Peter Hitchens views on Islam and many other topics in these two Conservative Home posts, here and here.

A Nation Once Again ....

Can we have our democracy back please, Messrs Brown and Falconer ?


Icon of St George by Ilian Rachov.



"Ah, the mummers, the mummers!" cried several guests at once. "Clear a space for the mummers."

Humpbacked Father Christmas then made a complete entry, swinging his huge club, and in a general way clearing the stage for the actors proper, while he informed the company in smart verse that he was come, welcome or welcome not; concluding his speech with

"Make room, make room, my gallant boys,
And give us space to rhyme;
We've come to show Saint George's play,
Upon this Christmas time."

The guests were now arranging themselves at one end of the room, the fiddler was mending a string, the serpent-player was emptying his mouthpiece, and the play began. First of those outside the Valiant Soldier entered, in the interest of Saint George--

"Here come I, the Valiant Soldier;
Slasher is my name";

and so on. This speech concluded with a challenge to the infidel, at the end of which it was Eustacia's duty to enter as the Turkish Knight. She, with the rest who were not yet on, had hitherto remained in the moonlight which streamed under the porch. With no apparent effort or backwardness she came in, beginning--

"Here come I, a Turkish Knight,
Who learnt in Turkish land to fight;
I'll fight this man with courage bold:
If his blood's hot I'll make it cold!"

During her declamation Eustacia held her head erect, and spoke as roughly as she could, feeling pretty secure from observation. But the concentration upon her part necessary to prevent discovery, the newness of the scene, the shine of the candles, and the confusing effect upon her vision of the ribboned visor which hid her features, left her absolutely unable to perceive who were present as spectators. On the further side of a table bearing candles she could faintly discern faces, and that was all.

Meanwhile Jim Starks as the Valiant Soldier had come forward, and, with a glare upon the Turk, replied--

"If, then, thou art that Turkish Knight,
Draw out thy sword, and let us fight!"

And fight they did; the issue of the combat being that the Valiant Soldier was slain by a preternaturally inadequate thrust from Eustacia, Jim, in his ardour for genuine histrionic art, coming down like a log upon the stone floor with force enough to dislocate his shoulder. Then, after more words from the Turkish Knight, rather too faintly delivered, and statements that he'd fight Saint George and all his crew, Saint George himself magnificently entered with the well-known flourish--

"Here come I, Saint George, the valiant man,
With naked sword and spear in hand,
Who fought the dragon and brought him to the slaughter,
And by this won fair Sabra, the King of Egypt's daughter;
What mortal man would dare to stand
Before me with my sword in hand?"

This was the lad who had first recognized Eustacia; and when she now, as the Turk, replied with suitable defiance, and at once began the combat, the young fellow took especial care to use his sword as gently as possible. Being wounded, the Knight fell upon one knee, according to the direction. The Doctor now entered, restored the Knight by giving him a draught from the bottle which he carried, and the fight was again resumed, the Turk sinking by degrees until quite overcome--dying as hard in this venerable drama as he is said to do at the present day.

Thomas Hardy - The Return of the Native

God prosper long our noble Queen

And long may she reign !


Picture from the National Archives.



UPDATE - I hate to repeat myself but ...


The monarchy is the living totem of our tribe.

In the US, to be republican is to be an American patriot, in Ireland to be an Irish patriot, in France to be a French patriot. There is no patriotic British republican tradition - what republicanism exists is, often explicitly, anti-British.

Monarchy, like religion, appeals to the irrational in human nature.

I use irrational here to mean something which human reason is ill-equipped to grasp or comprehend, but which may nonetheless play an important role in human affairs. Complex or imaginary numbers could be an analogy. I can't grasp the concept of the square root of -1, yet it plays an important role in physics. (Note - there are also numbers known as irrational numbers).

A society can get rid of monarchy, just as it can get rid of religion. But irrational urges in human beings cannot be so easily removed. If they cannot be expressed via the structures built up in Britain over the centuries, they will find an outlet elsewhere.

A Lawless Shambles That We Share The Blame For

The security forces are some of the biggest thugs. Vendettas, private armies.

We helped create this, and have been paying for it through our taxes.

"And people are sick of it - in fact 84% according to a recent poll, place internal security as their number one priority."

Now, in a move which reeks of desperation, the new Government has appointed a noted warlord from a powerful clan to head a new security force - a move that could spark civil war.

Iraq ? No, the Gaza Strip.

You Have To Admire The Today Programme ...

The President of China is visiting the US - and the Today Programme's first item after the eight o'clock news decides to focus on China's attitude to human rights (RealAudio), which "is not exactly compatible with Western standards".

Would the BBC care to give us an example ?

"One huge cause for concern is China's fondness for the death penalty ..."

So let's ask Ken Livingstone's ex, Kate Allen of Amnesty International, to give a little talk on how China is 'by far the worst offender'.

Now there's a case for a close look at China's USE of the death penalty - it is applied for cases of 'economic sabotage' for example. But Kate Allen's position is that ALL executions are a violation of human rights.

Her views are shared by only a minority of the UK and US populations, though by probably a majority of Today presenters. The death penalty has been compatible with western standards for most of the twentieth century, and is still used in the greatest Western nation. How strange that, of all the criticisms that could be levelled - lack of democracy, no freedom of expression, no freedom of religion, for example - that the BBC should choose this as an example of what's wrong with China.

Dialogue Of The Deaf

Tony Sewell telling it like it is. There's none so deaf as those that will not hear.

However, Sewell called for a rethink of educational strategies for black students.

“One of the ways that we’ve got it wrong is that we’ve been bogged down with the socialist route and agenda, which is not necessarily our agenda, and what we’ve done is concentrated on a very small group of disaffected black youths.

“It seems to me – strategically – that we’ve missed a whole way of going about it. We’ve got to come to the government and not say: ‘here’s a group of black children underachieving and what are you going to do?’

“What we want to actually say is: ‘here are the big strategic ideas and this is the group we want to focus on’." Sewell stunned the group when he called for the exclusion of the badly behaved minority in favour of the wellbehaved majority.

“In some schools, children are openly dealing drugs, they are openly violent with teachers, they are not coming to school on time.

“They never do any homework, they never have any of their bags with any schoolwork and they are bringing in a culture from the street of gangsterism right into the classroom. And then you sit down and say ‘we are concerned about exclusion rates?’

“To be honest, in some of those schools half of those students should have been out and if I was the head teacher I would kick them out because they deserved it," he said.

Other members of the panel violently objected to Sewell’s view.

“All you are doing is perpetuating that system of selection that has been refined by rejection," said German.

“There are too many schools like that which are not fit places to educate children," German added.

Paul Phoenix interjected: “We have got racism in our education system to a level that it is almost becoming acceptable.

“How can we expect any child to go into a system that tells them, one, ‘you don’t exist’ and two, ‘your foreparents did absolutely nothing for the benefit of humanity?’

“Would any of us walk into an environment that treats them the same way that the education system treats black children?" Phoenix asked.

You might think Sewell's ideas were common sense, to be applied to all children irrespective of race. German and Professor John, whose "Communities Empowerment Network" is funded by the National Lottery, don't think pupils should be excluded even after carrying out a sustained campaign of harassment against a teacher - including death threats.

NUT - they really are the Loony Left

The Times :

"I’m not the only person in this hall with a mental illness," he said. "Probably a third of you and a third of our members will experience mental illness at some time."

A Post

At Biased BBC.

The Call

Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life :
Such a Way, as gives us breath :
Such a Truth, as ends all strife :
And such a Life, as killeth death.

Come, my Light, my Feast, my Strength :
Such a Light, as shows a feast :
Such a Feast, as mends in length :
Such a Strength, as makes his guest.

Come, my Joy, my Love, my Heart :
Such a Joy, as none can move :
Such a Love, as none can part :
Such a Heart, as joyes in love.



George Herbert 1593-1633

(another one of Vaughan-Williams Five Mystical Songs)

Escaping The Frantic Lifestyle

I blogged the other day about how English immigrants are destroying Welsh culture. New data from the Halifax is even more disturbing. It's not just London - there's a general move west of the English.

"The “West-East tilt” now rivals the North-South divide as the defining character in the country’s booming housing market.

More than two million people have moved away from London in the past ten years, whether to escape the frantic lifestyle or simply from a desire to retire to the countryside. And the West Country is proving to be one of the most popular destinations.

Eighteen of the 20 counties that have had the biggest increases in property prices since 1996 are in western Britain, according to figures from the Halifax, the country’s biggest mortgage lender.

Wales has, on average, had the biggest gain in prices during the period, accounting for 13 of the top 20 hotspots. The counties of Cornwall, Dorset, Gloucestershire and Somerset in the South West and Shropshire in the western Midlands also made it on to the list."

I love that 'whether to escape the frantic lifestyle'.

It appears that the Anglo-Saxons, 1600 years on, are following the Britons in retreating to the West. This is very bad news for the Britons (i.e. the Welsh and native Cornish). It could also be bad news for the Scots. First Minister Jack McConnell wants lots of immigrants - or he says he does. It'll be interesting to see the anti-racist Scots' response to an influx of well-heeled English refugees. The cheapest place to buy a house in mainland Britain is now Blaenau Gwent, once a land ot tight-knit steel and coal communities, chapel-goers and beer drinkers, now a smack-infested fractured land of bastards bypassed by the English incomers. It's an interesting (and sad) fact that the only Welsh places to avoid the influx will be those where the natives are violent enough. (But it's still risen 200%). So Easterhouse is pretty safe from colonisation. My tip - the Scottish Borders.

Department Of Bleeding Obvious

Observer :

Fear of crime is driving Britons to move home, according to new research that found up to 180,000 people a year relocate after becoming victims.
Burglaries were the most common reason for selling up, but other people had quit their neighbourhoods after car break-ins, muggings or more violent crimes.

Ah yes. As in 'escaping from the frantic lifestyle'.

"More than two million people have moved away from London in the past ten years, whether to escape the frantic lifestyle or simply from a desire to retire to the countryside."

The report, from the Institute for Public Policy Research, also shows that the poor, already known to be more likely to suffer crime, are disproportionately more likely to be badly affected by it. After being burgled, people living in council houses were more likely to suffer depression and sleepless nights than owner-occupiers in the same situation.

Dalrymple :

"My patient is, of course, an easy target for burglars and robbers. Her house has been broken into five times in the last year, and she has been robbed in the street three times in the same period, twice in the presence of passersby.

Such a person can expect no sympathy from the authorities. The police have told her more than once that the fault is hers: someone like her should not live somewhere like this. The streets, in other words, should be left to the hooligans, the vandals, and the robbers, to ply their inevitable trades in peace, and it is the duty of citizens to avoid them. It is no part of the state's duty to secure the streets against them.

In such circumstances, decency is almost synonymous with vulnerability: a quality with which the authorities have no sympathy."

Council Election Campaign - BNP "to drop Beckham, Rooney from England squad" ?

It seems the council election campaign has well and truly begun. All over the media is the claim of millionairess Labour minister Margaret Hodge that the non-millionaire natives of Barking are going BNP at a scary rate (wealthy Barking people are still strong anti-fascists - but they've moved to Dorset).

"Mrs Hodge said the pace of ethnic change in her area had frightened people. "What has happened in Barking and Dagenham is the most rapid transformation of a community we have ever witnessed.

"Nowhere else has changed so fast. When I arrived in 1994, it was a predominantly white, working class area. Now, go through the middle of Barking and you could be in Camden or Brixton."

Meanwhile the Telegraph is bigging up the organisation "Labour Friends of Searchlight". We're seeing here an increasing tendency to follow the US road when it comes to election expenses. LFoS is not a Labour Party organisation, will not advise people to vote Labour, just againt the BNP, and so does not break rules on election expenditure - allowing Labour to spend beyond the statutory limits in individual seats. Absent millionaires may yet play a role in Barking.

"More than 120,000 St George's Day leaflets with a picture of the England football team containing four black players have been sent out by the group, mainly to strong BNP areas in east London, the West Midlands, West Yorkshire and Lancashire.

At the last World Cup the BNP refused to support the English team because it had black players - and backed Denmark instead.

The leaflet says that as well as excluding black players such as Rio Ferdinand, the BNP would eject David Beckham, who is a quarter Jewish, and Wayne Rooney, who is of Irish descent."

While carrying no Union Flag-with-a-point-on-the-end for the BNP, this set the bs-detector stirring. What's the truth ?

It turns out

a) the BNP ran a piece when Denmark beat the French, saying that it demonstrated that multiculturalism didn't work. Classic Nazi nonsense a la "the fighting quality of a race depends upon its purity" (from Churchill's brilliant one-page precis of Mein Kampf - the closest I've got to it). The item ended with "Good luck in the next round, Denmark !" (This piece was part of a continuing debate - it seems hard to believe looking at France eight years later, but their 1998 World Cup victory was greeted by the entire liberal left as proof that France was a truly united multicultural nation.)

When they realised that the (multi-ethnic) England side was up againat Denmark in the next round, the piece was hurriedly removed (and Heskey scored as England won 3-0).

FWIW, I think black players will continue to be over-represented in top-level football - because they're better players. Skill levels may be the same among all races, but the physical differences which make West Africans and their descendants the best sprinters on the planet aren't going to go away.

b) The 'no Beckham or Rooney' stuff came, not from the BNP, but from every anti-racists favourite hate-sheet - the super soaraway Sun, which published a photo of an England squad 'under a BNP government'. This, and the pulled piece (which a/c/t Searchlight was written by Martin Wingfield, an unreconstructed ex-NF type), are the inspiration for this.



Information from (where else ?) Searchlight.

I must say that this second postcard, knocked up by Photoshop (what could Stalin have done with that), is not only dishonest, but counterproductive. It appears to show white rioters - a phenomenon so rare as to practically constitute an endangered species. While there are small groups of violent bad hats in that underworld where football violence meets politics, I don't think the average native will consider that a white mob torching their streets is terribly likely.

And if the implication is that BNP activities will cause some other group to torch their streets - well, at some point, 'don't do X or they'll riot' is going to lose its appeal as a political slogan.




The Telegraph seems to be well on board. This editorial points out that BNP policies include 'forced repatriation'.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'd thought that the main plank of the BNPs difference with the old NF was precisely that they'd accepted the practical, and maybe moral, impossibility of repatriating seven or eight million people, most of whom were born here.

Sigh. Time for the statutory disclaimer. I could never join an organisation like the BNP, being an old-fashioned type who believes in content of character, colour of eyes and all that.

But as long as the demographics all point one way, as long as continuing immigration (and continuing emigration of natives) continue to change the cultural landscape, above all as long as our white, wealthy liberal elite refuse to even think about, let alone face honestly, some of the less palatable issues raised by a multicultural society (being themselves insulated from these issues by their wealth) - then we will see politics in the UK, and particularly in England - split upon racial lines. Thet is what has happened everywhere else in the world where a nation has major ethnic divisions - and while I love the English, I can't see them being immune - they're not THAT special.

There is no sign of the pace of immigration, or native emigration, slowing. In which case the only question is which party will represent the natives. Mr Howard's my-family-were-poor-immigrants Tories might have done. Mr Cameron's born-with-a-silver-coke-spoon-up-nose Tories ?

So - a big heave this election might keep the BNP vote down. But the effort needed will be higher each time as the tide rises.