There's A Small Postette

At Biased BBC.

Satire Throws In Towel ....

"The under-fire Home Office has suffered a fresh blow with the news five illegal immigrants were found cleaning one of the department's offices in London.
The Nigerians were arrested after checks on their immigration status.

They were working for a firm which was contracted to clean Becket House, part of the Immigration and Nationality directorate (IND)."



Passport forgery law is repealed by accident.

The Home Office faced fresh controversy last night after ministers were accused of accidentally repealing the law which makes it an offence to have a forged passport.

In an extraordinary development, it was claimed that Labour's Identity Cards Act had repealed the existing laws before the new laws to replace them come into force.

One court case involving two men who were caught with forged passports has already had to be adjourned.

Peter Briffa channels Gary Younge (among many others) ...

"But this is Blair’s Britain, where black footballers are tolerated just so long as their white colleagues get all the limelight ..."

Joseph Harker, whose work I usually admire, beats him hollow ...

"I've been looking at the drivers of these flag-waving vehicles, and - OK, I admit this isn't exactly scientific - half of them are in white vans, and the rest are white, male, tattooed, pot-bellied 35 to 55-years-olds: exactly the type I've been seeing on TV for the past month complaining about "our houses going to the asylum seekers", or that "we're losing control of our country". I can't tell if these drivers come from Barking and Dagenham, where the BNP gained 11 seats, but that borough is just a short drive from where I live, so who knows?"

Followed by :

"There is a serious point to this."

At Least They're Honest II

Former Home Office minister John Denham :

I think the real problem is that community cohesion ends the idea that a diverse society can be built without the white majority having to change very much.

The change-over from "they're a tiny minority - your fears are groundless" to "there are other cultures than yours - you might want to consider changing" (with its unspoken 'or else') is almost complete. Only compulsion is left to follow.




Denham's article is apparently (I couldn't find it) available at Catalyst, a tax-funded magazine produced by the Commission For Racial Equality. It also contains an entertaining article by one Rachel Pillai, bemoaning the tendency of some tabloids to "play loose and fast (sic) with the statistics they publish".

"In the lead-up to the last round of EU enlargement, one of the tabloids claimed that 1.4 million eastern Europeans were on their way to Britain – a completely unsubstantiated claim."

As she doesn't name either the tabloid or its publication date, her claim is also completely unsubstantiated. But let it pass.

In contrast to the evil tabloids with their right-wing agenda, the Home Office estimate was 5,000-13,000 - and this was backed up by the Guardian, quoting an unreferenced "new survey".

British fears of an influx of immigrants from eastern European countries joining the EU in May were rubbished in Brussels yesterday as a new survey found that total migration into existing member states after the EU's biggest ever enlargement is likely to be about 1% over the next five years. If correct, the figures mean there will be about 220,000 immigrants a year into all 15 current members. That suggests that the government's original "open-door" estimate of 5,000 to 13,000 a year coming to the UK is realistic and does not require limits on benefits, quotas or other restrictive measures.

"This study confirms the commission's view that fears of a huge wave of migration from the new member states will be proven to be unfounded," insisted Margot Wallstrom, commissioner for employment and social affairs. Pat Cox, the Irish president of the European parliament, was blunter. "The biggest flood we've had to date is not of humans, but the flood of ink on tabloid red tops," he said.

The actual number - according to the BBC, was about 329,000 over 18 months. The unnamed, unsubstantiated tabloid estimate was out by a factor of 7. The Government estimate was out by a factor of about 20. What a pity the CRE don't see fit to share those "unsubstantiated claims" with us.

It Gets Worse ....

I missed this - the reason why we've lost large numbers of foreign criminals. It's our old friend "management by target".

"The Home Office instructed immigration officers not to deport foreign convicts because of fears that they would claim asylum, a senior Whitehall insider has alleged. The policy was implemented more than two years ago as part of a wider, undisclosed strategy to reduce asylum claims so that the Home Office could meet Tony Blair’s target of driving down the number of applicants for refugee status.

This undermines claims by Blair and Charles Clarke, the home secretary, that a simple breakdown of communication between immigration and prison service officials was to blame for the fiasco."

So Blair's asylum promises of 2004, apparently so effective, are actually being produced like this. Reading councillor (now an MP) Robert Wilson went out on patrol with Thames Valley Police.

"Wilson, a councillor at the time, was stunned by what he saw that Saturday night. “The vast majority of people being picked up and processed by Thames Valley Police were not in the UK legally,” recalled Wilson. “That surprised and shocked me.”

At the time, police avoided his questions on the numbers of foreign nationals being arrested by saying they did not keep such statistics. Most of the drug-related crime in the area, Wilson was assured privately by officers, was being carried out by foreign gangs. He now claims police officers in any major town in England will have a similar story to tell."

"When he was elected to parliament as a Conservative MP for Reading East last year, Wilson pursued the issue with more vigour and more authority. In the course of investigating the level of foreign criminality in his constituency, the MP drew out comments from senior police officers and immigration officials. Their testimony has convinced him the Home Office is turning a blind eye to foreign criminals for an easier sweep-up of law-abiding individuals and families who have had their applications for asylum rejected."

Hence the Samina Altafs and Sarah Hatas of this world. It's just less hassle to get a mum and two kids on a plane than to sort out criminals.

“The immigration service has been told to pick the low-hanging fruit,” says the MP. “They have turned their back on anybody who could cause the least bit of difficulty.”

It makes a kind of perverted sense, I suppose. For thirty years now law-abiding natives have been left to fend for themselves while the people who make their lives a misery have had state funds, lawyers, social workers and safari holidays chucked at them. It seems only fair, and in keeping with previous policy, that the least offensive, and most law-abiding illegal immigrants should get the 5 a.m. knock on the door, while the real bad boys go untouched.

By now Wilson had made enough waves to generate a flow of information towards him. In a letter to the MP, one senior immigration official, who remains anonymous, confirmed that immigration officers were forbidden from going on police operations or dealing with immigration offenders arrested by the police unless they were failed asylum seekers.

The immigration service officer wrote that his colleagues’ hands were tied by orders to specifically target failed asylum seekers.

“Immigration service personnel are under instruction not to get involved in assisting the police with offenders unless they happen to be failed asylum seekers,” wrote the officer. “This is because these offenders are likely to claim asylum and tip the scales the wrong way. Thus are the figures massaged.”

“Reading is no different from any other town or city in the UK, every economic hub will have the same problems as we do,” said Wilson.

“The only difference is that I have uncovered police and immigration officers who are willing to give me the information that shows it is illegal foreign nationals who are involved in most of the criminality here.

“The police have done me that service because they fear for the public and the lives of their officers.”

Immigration - Don't Know, Don't Care

I think the full evidence will be worth a read when it turns up on the Parliament website. Notice in the BBC report the appearance of a new panacea.

"Mr Roberts said he could "understand the public's frustration" but the system would be tightened up when new "electronic borders" came into effect."

Electronic borders, eh ? The ID card will save us all !

Times - "The committee was told by the chief economist at the Department for Work and Pensions that between 200,000 and 300,000 national insurance numbers were issued each year to foreigners and that immigration checks were carried out on only 2 per cent."

BBC - "A senior immigration official has told MPs he did not "have the faintest idea" how many illegal immigrants there were in the UK.
David Roberts, of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND), added there was little point trying to hunt individuals who overstayed their visas."

Telegraph - "In the past, immigration officers went to addresses given by asylum seekers or potential illegal immigrants only to find they were not there."

"The committee questioned other officials over the distribution of National Insurance numbers to foreign nationals. These are used by people who have no right to work in this country to prove they are eligible to do so.

Jonathan Portes, the Department for Work and Pensions chief economist, said NI numbers were not meant to prove entitlement to work, so Jobcentre staff issuing them made no checks about an applicants' immigration status.

Again, the MPs were nonplussed. Mr Denham said: "Given that there is very limited enforcement, would it not be sensible not to issue NI numbers to people who are not legally in the country?"

Mr Winnick said: "Has that thought never occurred to you? Millions will think it the most sensible thing to do."

But Mr Portes said it was the task of the Jobcentre interviewer to establish that the applicant was who they said they were. "It is not about ascertaining whether someone is legally in the country or has the right to work."

At another hearing, Sir Gus O'Donnell, the head of the Civil Service, said the release of foreign prisoners with no attempt to deport them was unlikely to result in the dismissal of any officials."

Scotland Attracting Economic Migrants

Well, Jack McConnell said he wanted fresh talent. Yesterday my wife had lunch with an old friend, whose elderly parents have just moved from Surrey to Banffshire - to avoid having to sell their home in old age to pay care fees. The fees are, of course, state-funded in Scotland.




South of the Tweed, England attracts younger, more vibrant migrants.

Baybasin first came to Britain in 1997 and claimed asylum. While his application was being considered, he was sentenced to three years for possession of a firearm and ammunition — although this was reduced to one year.

He was refused asylum but won his appeal and it is believed that the Home Office was appealing against his victory when he was arrested.

Abdullah Baybasin, who is said to have been responsible for 90 per cent of the heroin in Britain, ran an extortion racket in North London, terrifying Turkish and Kurdish businessmen with extreme violence, using petrol bombs, guns and machetes.

In 2002, the gang openly clashed with supporters of the Kurdish political party, PKK, on the streets around Green Lanes, North London. One man was stabbed to death in the fighting.

Scotland Yard was so concerned about the gang that armed patrols were put on the streets.

From Pole To Pole

I've been writing about the Poles off and on for a couple of years - ever since I realised who the student-looking chaps in the farmers portakabin down the road were. Nice chaps working on the farms, anaemic blondes staffing the Lidl tills - they're all over the place. Stories like this and this are popping up too.

The Sunday Times reckons some 350,000 in eighteen months. Blunkett's Home Office estimated some 13,000.

Coleman believes the only comparable migration was that of French Protestants, known as Huguenots, after the revocation of the edict of Nantes in 1685 ended their right to practise their faith at home.

An estimated 50,000 fled to Britain in the 17th century, adding about 1% to the country’s 5m population. The current Polish intake, although far greater in numbers, is a lower proportion.

Professor John Salt, of the migration research unit at University College London, agrees with Coleman’s view. “What we are seeing now . . . is something unprecedented,” he said.

Some Brits have welcomed these new migrants with open arms. The Telegraph's Tom Utley loves Marek and Anna - so pleasant and so affordable.

When a member of the English educated classes finds a polite, hard-working immigrant, it's the done thing to make a noise about it, like the inner-city teacher lauding Ghanaians ("the most polite and respectful society I know").

I'm a little more leery of what's happening. Firstly, many Poles are coming here to stay. They're bringing wives and kids. In the nearby market town a Polish deli has opened. Great news for a Catholic primary a tad short of the faithful (our first Polish kids start next term) - on a national scale, great news for Catholic educators, otherwise looking at vast areas, once the Irish immigrant hearts of our great cities, which are full of Catholic schools with 90% Muslim pupils.

I'm trying to take a long view on this. The fact that these new Brits are polite and hard-working, do not do crack or firearms, nor are they likely to blow up Tube trains, is a function of the culture they have arrived with. It tells us nothing about what their first and second generation descendents will be like after twenty years exposure to the cultural vacuum of the UK.

Before the borders were effectively opened in 1997 there had been three great waves of 20th century immigration into the UK - West Indians from the Caribbean, Pakistanis/Bangladeshis from what was then East and West Pakistan, Hindus and Sikhs from India and the Punjab.

All of these groups on arrival were intensely respectable and law-abiding. The Windrush generation were as good a bunch of people as you'd find anywhere, and their education in the 1940s/50s Caribbean was as British as anything taught over here. But they were coming to a Mother Country that had just stopped believing in itself, armed with a culture which turned out to have no value in its original home. Something happened to many of their children between 1957 and 1981 - and it wasn't good. You can see the cultural descendents of Windrush in the immaculately dressed families heading for Wandsworth churches on a Sunday - but you can also see street crime, shootings, a gigantic bastardy rate - what Robert Whelan called a warrior culture on the streets.

Likewise the parents and grandparents of those who torched Manningham, "protesting against the BNP" by attempting, 600-strong, the mass murder of 22 elderly white Labour Club members, were a law-abiding bunch who came here expecting to become Brits. I've posted on this previously.

The first generation of immigrants from Pakistan and Bangladesh came here as "immigrants". They came expecting and wanting to integrate to some extent into the existing community. The collection of photographs taken of the first generation by the photographic studio in Manningham Lane illustrates this. The first week’s wages went on a Burtons suit and the men proudly displayed watches, pens and radios, mostly supplied by the photographer.


Two great migrations - two serious sets of problems twenty years down the line. What's the secret of the Sikhs and Hindus, whose migration was around the same time as the Muslims yet after twenty or thirty years here still aren't setting fire to other people or their property, but instead are becoming richer and better educated ? Is it that they, of all immigrant groups, have effortlessly translated themselves into the middle class ?

I'm really not sure - I'll have to ask Sunny. Family values will account for some of it - but Muslims have those too. My gut feel is that the Hindu community are perhaps the most economically valuable, and also the most portable. Were things to go terribly pearshaped here we might well find their marketable skills and capital heading elsewhere.

Some of the new immigrants since the borders were opened - Kosovans, Albanians, Somalis - came from countries with an existing culture of violence. Poland has been at peace, whether it wanted it or not, for sixty years.

Under Communism, the Catholic Church became the soul of Poland and centre of resistance to Soviet occupation. To be a Polish Catholic was to be a Polish patriot.

Then the Wall - and the Soviet Empire - fell. I don't know what that's done to church attendance back home, but there are about 300 Poles, mostly under 30, living within a four-mile radius of our church. You can count the Polish attendees at Mass on the fingers of one hand.

These people - and more their children - will not have the faith or the memory of oppression which sustained their parents and grandparents. They will have TV, a UK State schooling, cultural vacuum, and the Welfare State. It may well be that their children won't fancy a Portakabin and a fiver an hour. It's a bit early to celebrate the Poles - about 25 years early.

Think Of It Always - Speak Of It Never

There are some political truths that are better not uttered. Take terrorism and the Iraq war, for example. You know, I know, the cat knows that overthrowing Saddam made a terrorist attack, home-grown or sourced overseas, more likely. IMHO that's just one of those crosses we have to bear.

Some on the left love to remind us of this basic truth - particularly in its home-grown variant. The Government, for eminently sensible reasons, shy away from it like an alcoholic sighting a pink elephant.

The BBC, for some reason, really likes to play the 'if you upset them they'll riot/blow things up' angle, often mixed 50/50 with 'really nice people/religion of peace'.

I can only assume that for the left, and for the BBC, the tolerance and good nature of the natives is a given that they can presume upon, no matter what is inflicted upon them. Their first reaction to 9/11 was to ask 'what have we done to upset them ?', so they assume that the mass of Brits will react likewise to 7/7 and any future slaughters.

Here's a BBC piece on the proposed new Britishness lessons, in which one 'Harris Bokhara' (sounds like a tweed rug to me), of the Muslim Association of Britain, tells it bluntly.

"What was the reason why these people actually committed these disgusting acts?

Unfortunately it was our foreign policy, it was the issue of the illegal war, the illegal occupation of Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, the continuing abuses of the Palestinian people, the illegal occupation of Palestine by the Israeli state.

So I think until the government actually addresses these issues unfortunately we'll keep on having these problems in the UK particularly."

Can't put it straighter than that. The MAB spokesman's message is simple :

"Change British foreign policy or more British Muslims will try to kill you. You may not like it, we may not like it - but that's the way it is."

Soggy Clippings From The Curate's Lawn

Tim Worstall says the necessary on the Kill The Sick Bill.


Computational Racism ?


BBC News 24 interview not the planned guest, but his taxi driver.


Good news for some :

The poor state of the economy is having an effect on infrastructure
Zimbabwe's inflation rate has surged past the 1,000% mark signalling that the African country is struggling to keep its economy functioning normally.

Not the poor Zimbabweans, but for those who (up to the last budget) avoided tax via offshore loans.

It was rather beautiful if you like that sort of thing. Instead of being paid for your work, you worked via a company (usually in the IOM or Channel Islands) who the client paid. They then didn't pay you much, but they gave you a large, repayable loan in a carefully chosen foreign currency. Carefully chosen from a range of basket case economies so that by the time repayment was due the loan was worth about a fiver. Zimbabwean currency was a favourite. When you got the loan, of course, you immediately converted it into a solid currency at whatever the going rate was.

I wonder on what grounds the IR are challenging ? Presumably if the rate of interest was non-commercial ?

True British Values

"The BNP is the complete opposite of the true essence of Britishness.

Our community has four years to think about what has happened, in the recent local elections, and I look forward to the first opportunity when we all can soundly and robustly vote out the fascist BNP and restore true British values to Hainault."

With these stirring words the Labour Party's Mark Santos wrappeth himself in the Union Flag.

Mr Santos, as director of the taxpayer-funded London East Aids Network, exemplifies the good old fashioned British values so dear to the hearts of those who fought against Hitler.

Such as

- the advocacy role of our African Services,
ensuring that people can overcome cultural
and linguistic barriers
- a pilot of workshops for gay men dealing
with issues of long-term diagnosis and mental
health
- a pilot of courses targeted at recently diagnosed
African clients under the title
‘Maisha Maizuli’ and held in English and
French
- having an Artist-in-Residence for a year,
allowing people to explore living with the
Virus in an holistic and creative way
- our new gay men’s website promoting
access to relevant services and information

It's enough to make you sigh for the days when Labour Party people were happy to be open about hating Britain. Only Ken Livingstone and the SNP still carry the torch.

UPDATE - the ordinary people of Redbridge are upset too.

"This is a borough that has provided a haven for the survivors of the holocaust and also for those fleeing persecution, a tradition of which it could be proud."

says Diana Neslen.

Indeed, a haven for the survivors of the holocaust is something to be proud of - like the State of Israel. Er ... is that the Diana Neslen who wants the EU to continue funding the Hamas Government ? Who signs petitions for the IRA front group Relatives For Justice ? Any relation to former Al-Jazeera correspondent Arthur Neslen, I wonder ?

Me no understand. The BNP, who Ms Neslen thinks should be excised 'like a cancer', have some decidedly dodgy views on Red Sea pedestrians, and think illegal immigrants should be sent home - the latter a policy which is, in form if not in fact, shared by Her Majesty's Government.

Hamas, who Ms Neslen thinks should get EU taxpayers money, believe Jews to be sons of pigs and monkeys, that the very trees will call for their deaths, and have a policy of slaughtering those they believe to be illegal immigrants - men, women and children. The category of 'illegal immigrant' consists of every Jew in the State of Israel.

Ordinary legal caseworker Krista Everington was shocked and saddened too.

"I hope that Redbridge Council will ensure that the views of the single, and therefore thankfully quite powerless BNP councillor, are challenged at every point"

"Before joining RNID, Krista worked in welfare rights advice and advocacy with a range of national organisations for the past six years."

Good to see the ordinary folk are finding their voices.

What The Hell Happened In Kingstanding ?

From the vote fraud capital of England, this BBC story:

"A court will have to decide on the validity of a Birmingham election result after the acting chief executive said some votes were counted twice.
The BNP has officially won a seat in Kingstanding, but it was later announced this was not correct and it should have been a Labour win."

"It was later announced".

When was 'later' ? Who announced it ?

It appears that the votes were counted thrice (two recounts), in the presence of the usual tellers, party and council officials. The result was declared.

A couple of hours later, when the only people with access to the ballots were Birmingham council officials, the council apparently decided to conduct a third (and invalid - the winner of en election is s/he who is declared so by the returning officer) count all by their little selves. Apparently, some votes had been double counted, an error not spotted in the three public counts, but immediately apparent once council officials were alone with the ballots.

Amazingly, Labour won both seats in this private recount - for as luck would have it, far more BNP votes had been double counted than any others. And they are inviting the unsuccessful candidates (at the council tax payer's expense) to get their private recount confirmed as the correct one.

Words fail me. DSD has the details, as do the Birmingham Post.

This is serious stuff. I don't care if the winners were Combat 18 or the People's Revolutionary Army, the principle's the same. You count and decide in the presence of those who can keep their eyes open for dodgy dealings, not in the presence of a couple of mates when everyone's gone home.

Reading the council's explanation (pdf) I'm prepared to admit that it's possible, though it will need proving. How was this 'additional column that should not have been on the sheet' not spotted in the previous three counts ? How did this column come to be on the sheet ?

The Returning Officer presiding over this shambles should be sacked. By accident or design, this gives the appearance of an unpopular minority party being cheated of office by the paid staff of the ruling party. The terrible thing is that with the track record of Labour and the Lib Dems I wouldn't put it past them.

UPDATE 1 - Councillor Bob Piper points out in his usual entertaining style that Brum is now a Tory/LD coalition, so although the election staff may have been appointed under Labour, they no longer work for a Labour administration.

UPDATE 2 - it appears that the reverse of this scenario (someone apparently missed the '1' off the front of the BNPs vote figure) is being played out in Barking.

UPDATE 3 - stories like this and this, from Barking and Dagenham, are what make people cheesed with the main parties.

"A YOUNG boy is searching for a shy hero who saved him 'being kicked to death'.
If the brave adult hadn't intervened, 13-year-old Ryan, of Halbutt Street, Dagenham, might have suffered more serious injuries when he was attacked by a gang of thugs.
Now the youngster wants to find the have-a-go hero to say thank you.
Police say that Parsloes Park in Dagenham has become notorious for crime in the past few months.
Ryan and two school friends were cutting across the park at 7pm on Tuesday, last week, when they ran into the crowd of 60 boys and girls, aged between 11 and 20."

"A FRAUDSTER who claimed a staggering £130,000 in tax credits for 12 non-existent children will be deported after greed led to her capture.
Julie Olanrewaju, 31, of St Mary's Road, Barking, claimed the amazing sum after the immigration services simply 'lost' her.
She was only caught because she became greedy and tried to change her tax credit claims to income support.
Olanrewaju was jailed for four years, after which she will be deported.
In a barbed comment, Judge David Radford at Snaresbrook Crown Court said: "I make the recommendation for deportation - with the hope it will be acted on by the Home Secretary."
It was revealed Olanrewaju had applied for leave to remain in Britain in 1991, but was turned down."

1991. She's been here illegally - and ripping off the taxpayer - for 15 years.

A Couple Of Bluebells From The Curate's Hedge

Diane Abbott discovers Mr Blair's Turkey Army.

"In recent decades the Labour Party has drawn its activist base disproportionately from the public sector"

She stands as a proud supporter of the public sector.

" ... the market is not the answer to every social issue ..."

" ... except education, of course"


Jane Kelly at the Social Affairs Unit blog has a fascinating interview with one of Muriel Gray's "appalling little people", a BNP council candidate from Keighley.

When I met Rose Thompson she was at home, on the seventh floor of an eleven-storey block, with a broken lift, knitting and crying. Tiny and frail in discoloured white fluffy slippers, crocheting a scarf, with two budgies chirping in the background, she looked like a leftover from a grittier Carla Lane sit-com. She moaned:

When I told them I was going over to the BNP no one believed me, now I've done it and everyone hates me. The Mayor says he's disgusted and my sister won't speak to me.

She also has just been warned by a neighbour to expect some kind of assault, but she still thought it was worth it. She said tearfully:

I'm worried but I can deal with it.

But her sense of abandonment was palpable:

As a councillor I have spoken for everyone, but no one has ever spoken for me. I am not a racist but Labour and Conservatives have done nothing for me, nothing. All the people I grew up with used to vote, we were told to vote Labour as we were going out the door, now hardly any of them vote – that is a big change. People up here feel there is no one on their side.

Read the whole thing.


Tottenham Lad has more on Jon 'demographics' Cruddas.


And Adloyada writes on yet another proposed boycott of Israel, and the remarkably low-key BBC response to the Lib Dem "wallowing in your own filth" story.

Killing Wales

One of my hobbyhorses is the way the M40 and A55 are helping to destroy Welsh culture - as hippies in the South, scallies in the North, and retiring English everywhere take advantage of the improved communications to move in and price out the locals.

And here are the hippies - Steiner school types to a man or woman, I'll be bound, planning a new settlement in the occupied West Bank (of the Severn).

While in the North, the great Dalrymple writes of the A55 and mourns the death of innocence.


UPDATE - Welsh Labour and Plaid debate the really important issues.

UPDATE II - I've added a sidebar link to Cymuned (English language version), who are campaigning against the slow-mo ethnic cleansing of Welsh Wales.

Compare And Contrast II

The BBC showing the lack of bias for which it's famed.



Hey, that Labour Minister, Ruth Kelly. Does she really believe in gay rights ?

"Some campaigners say her appointment suggests the government does not take gay rights seriously."

Further down the politics page :

Hey, what about that BNP councillor ? Did he really act in a gay porn movie ?

According to the Evening Standard the film includes long scenes of men undressing and fondling each other, full-frontal nudity and a naked man apparently performing a sex act on another. There are also repeated scenes of flagellation in which a group of semi-naked men apparently whip a fourth semi-naked man senseless to the ground, the paper says. (Sounds like a Royal Marines recruitment video to me - LT) In the party's election manifesto, the BNP raised the prospect of a local vote so parents could decide if they want to "prohibit the teaching of homosexuality as an alternative lifestyle choice".

I'll try and remember the last time the BBC lifted a not-very-good story attacking the left from the Evening Standard. (And I'll grin at the idea of "Marxist Gay Cinema" from "Dicky" Barnbrook).


UPDATE - People in BBC news really should be aware that one Labour MP did a lot of nudity - and at least two of her films feature chaps grappling with each other.


I await the BBCs "Labour Woman Rejects Porn Film Claim" story with interest.

Some Good News

A number of years ago, when the rise in rape allegations and fall in convictions came to prominence, word went round about the unluckiest man in London.

He'd been accused of rape by five different women from different parts of London, none of whom were known to each other, and acquitted each time. Why on earth this should happen to him, he just couldn't understand.

They nailed him in the end - despite his plea of "Why does this keep happening to me, it is so unfair".


UPDATE - Squander Two vehemently disagrees. I'm not generally in favour of such evidence being used either - but rape is an offence which often comes down to one word against another. I'm not Julie Bindel, but it is a special case crime. If all the five women were friends, that would be different - but the allegations by five separate women seem to be stretching coincidence too far and are IMHO pertinent. There is no doubt that this should very much be the exception rather than the rule.

I'm more concerned by the fact that Richard Benson QC, having unsuccessfully defended Edwards in two previous rape cases, was happy to procure acquittals for himn in the next five.

But today Mr Benson, 54, a QC for five years, rejected suggestions that he should have considered standing down when the pattern of the allegations against Edwards was clear. "I am not Edwards's judge, the jury are," he said, pointing to the "cab rank" principle that a barrister should accept the briefs which come round. "In each case I looked at the evidence together with those who assisted me and I advised him accordingly."

Asked if he had ever considered whether he might have been ethically compromised by his knowledge of Edwards, Mr Benson replied: "I would not have defended him if I had thought that was the case ... I am happy, of course, with the decisions I have taken. Every man charged with an offence is entitled to proper legal representation. If the system was otherwise there would be a risk of serious injustice."

Mr Benson must be as unlucky as Mr Edwards - that the same rapist should by chance have him as his QC in seven consecutive prosecutions - plus of course the one which finally nailed his client.

This isn't the only similar (though not identical) case.

Even as Alison was swearing to tell "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth", she knew it was a lie. What she was about to tell the jury of 10 women and one man was anything but the whole truth.
Her former gynaecologist was standing trial for raping her. But what the jury didn't know was that the apparently caring and upstanding professional man they saw in the dock was being brought to Preston crown court in a prison van every morning from Strangeways jail in Manchester. Also, the man respectfully addressed by counsel as "Dr Darwish" was in reality no longer a doctor. He had been struck off by the General Medical Council and was serving a six-year prison sentence for sexually assaulting nine other patients.

Alison had more reason than most alleged rape victims to want to see justice done. Her family's life had been turned upside down by the discovery that her youngest daughter, then 12, had been fathered by Darwish Darwish and not by Jim, her husband of more than 30 years. Alison told her daughter that she had been conceived as a result of rape and says it was one of the most difficult things she had ever had to do.

But the family was to feel let down badly again, this time by the legal system. Although a DNA test proved that Darwish was Karen's father, the jury acquitted him of rape. It was only after they delivered their verdict that they learned that he had been found guilty two years before of nine other indecent assaults and acquitted of one rape. All the assaults happened under hypnosis, when patients were undergoing "relaxation therapy" suggested by Darwish for sexual problems.

More Right-Wing Myths Punctured

Everyone knows that people don't get pregnant just to get a council flat, that allegations of recent immigrants getting housing priority over natives are nonsense, and that linking immigration and benefit fraud is the kind of thing the Daily Mail (who supported the Blackshirts in the 1930s, don't forget) goes in for.

Ms Aruyo was one of several witnesses giving evidence to the Commons home affairs select committee's probe into immigration control, specifically about the issue of private fostering.

In written evidence submitted before the hearing, her organisation reported: "We have reports of cases involving Ugandan girls who have been trafficked purposely for council housing.

"They are brought in unaccompanied so they can go into local authority care, they are then impregnated to enable them to become eligible for council flats. The men then disappear and return once the housing problem is solved."

More Tales From The Underclass

From Blackburn :

A 33-YEAR-OLD addict stole his terminally ill mum's TV set after she refused to lend him money for drugs.

And a court heard the son, registered as his mother's carer, used her electric wheelchair to remove the 32 inch TV which he sold for £40.

Brian Aspin, 33, of Sunnybank Gardens, Blackburn, pleaded guilty at Blackburn magistrates to theft of a TV worth £500.

"When she realised what had happened she was very upset."




Thanks Gavin for the link.

Don't Send Them Down - They Might Get The Impression They're Criminals

The Howard League for the Abolition of Punishment continues its campaign to abolish imprisonment, starting with the poor oppressed youth.

Apparently 70% of 'youths' between 18 and 20 - in other words people who are considered (by liberals) to be adults in all other contexts - reoffend and are convicted within two years. I think it's a fair assumption that others won't get caught, given our detection rates.

The reason ?

"A jail sentence made youths think of themselves as criminals, as well as making it very difficult to find jobs and homes on their release, the research found."

That might be because they ARE criminals.

"Sending them to prison, instead of reducing crime, actually makes it all the more inevitable" says the Howard League. There's no doubt that we don't want to upset these chaps.

Naturally this "don't send them to prison" message is loudly amplified by the Howard League's friends at BBC News, the Today programme (RealAudio), Guardian, Indie, and the state-funded caring community.


The campaign to abolish punishment continues with Youth Justice Tsar, Master-lookalike and hippie academic Rod Morgan's campaign against Asbos, loudly amplified by etc etc. Not only are we suffering from ""misplaced hysteria over teenage crime", but we're "demonising" as well as criminalising "high-jinks" and "normal adolescent behaviour 15-20 years ago".

In totally unconnected news, "Britain is perceived as one of the most loutish countries in Europe, according to a new survey published today".

"The survey also revealed a sharp contrast in national attitudes to tackling unruly behaviour. It found that in Germany, six out of 10 people would challenge a group of 14-year-olds vandalising a bus shelter, but in Britain six out of ten would not."

The BBC reports "The under-25s were most associated with anti-social behaviour such as vandalism and rowdiness". Demonising again, I guess.

Transpontine Round-Up

icSouthLondon with all the cheery news.

A TWO-YEAR-OLD girl died after her mum repeatedly dosed her with heroin substitute methadone to keep her quiet, the Old Bailey has heard. Ophelia Afoitor was found lifeless in bed hours after drug addict Denise Charles, 25, refused to let her go to hospital, the court heard.

THREE men were gunned down in a terrifying shoot-out that spilled from a packed club into a high street. The gunfight erupted inside the Mbalax nightspot in Peckham High Street during the early hours of Monday. Panicked clubbers fled as further blasts followed outside the venue.

AN ALBANIAN mum and daughter will face charges relating to the murder of a 24-year-old man at a hostel for the homeless. Renata Mitre, 22, of Queen's Road, New Cross, pleaded not guilty to the murder of Aaron Stokes at the Old Bailey on Tuesday last week. Mitre and her mother, Dezdemona Balla, 48, of no fixed address, both denied destroying evidence relating to the murder of Mr Stokes.


Robert Maw, 35, cornered the 14-year-old in a park and flashed at her. He was on bail at the time for grabbing a 36-year-old woman off a Deptford street at knifepoint and raping her.


A HAMMER-WIELDING mechanic bludgeoned his flat-mate to death as he slept, a court has heard. Ricardas Navickas, 45, of Kashgar Road, Plumstead, allegedly smashed Arturas Vilkauskas over the head with the tool after a drunken row. The Old Bailey heard Navickas had only been in the UK for two days when he moved into the one-bedroom flat with the victim and three other Lithuanians.

A TERRIFIED Sikh woman has told how a race attack made her think she would die like murder victim Stephen Lawrence. Teenagers launched abuse and missiles at the shocked social worker, her daughter and a friend when they visited Oxleas Wood in Eltham. The three made their way to their car but were confronted by the rabble minutes later. They hurled sticks, full beer cans and stones at the car causing slight damage to the windscreen. They escaped unhurt and called police. The victim says police told her no arrests could be made because officers said they were "outnumbered" by the horde of teenagers.

Compare And Contrast

Two stories of gang rape.

One alleged, involving three white lacrosse players from a prestigious American university and a black stripper hired to perform at a party.

One proven, involving two black criminals, serial rapists, and a white woman forced into a car and driven to a flat to be racially abused and assaulted at knifepoint. An earlier victim, aged fifteen, had been raped at gunpoint.

The first story hits all the right buttons for self-hating white liberals. As the BBC reports, "even aside from the current scandal, there is no escaping the hard reality that Duke's student population is largely white".

The Guardian has several stories ("it had all the ugliness of the Old South in an institution that prides itself on being a pillar of the New South: a brutal collision of race, sex and class ...").

To the Indie, the "university rape claim awakens demons of America's Deep South". Or to an Indie editor, the demons as mediated by the Rolling Stones and Neil Young ?

DNA sampling has proved negative, and it's unsure when the allegations will come to trial - but this story will run and run. You can place bets on the outcome.

The second, proven story has precisely ONE news report - in icSouthLondon. If the races of perpetrator and victim had been reversed, the BBC/Guardian/Indie would have been all over it like a rash.

Jamaican gang that used rape as its initiation
Apr 18 2006

Immigration chiefs faced fury last night for allowing a member of a sordid Jamaican rape gang to make South London his hunting ground. Sheldon Stewart, 26, was said to be part of the Buckles mob - a violent criminal outfit responsible for a spree of vile attacks in the Caribbean. Their hallmark is said to be a sickening initiation ceremony where new recruits are instructed to abduct and rape.

Yet despite being known in his homeland as a gang member, Stewart, 26, was able to move to Britain where he has:

* raped a schoolgirl at gunpoint
* held a knife to another woman's throat as he and a twisted accomplice tried to violate her
*taunted women who were prepared to stand up to him in court
*boasted of keeping young girls as slaves

Inner London Crown Court heard how Stewart attacked a 15-year-old girl at gunpoint and dragged another woman into flat in Peak Hill, Sydenham, after calling her "a white bitch". He and the scar-faced pal threatened to "burst" or shoot the first victim on November 25, 2004, if she didn't submit to their sordid demands. The girl had been lured into Stewart's car on the promise of cannabis and a lift. Instead, both men took turns to rape her as a gun was held to her head. Stewart targeted a second victim on December 30, 2004, first trying to chat her up, then bundling her into a car on the Tulse Hill Estate. He called the 25-year-old a "white bitch" and drove her back to the Sydenham flat, where the accomplice was again waiting to pounce. Stewart held a 7in long knife to the the sobbing woman's throat, but she kept calm and fooled the pair into letting her go to the toilet from where she fled.