A Good Day To Bury Bad News ...

The number of East Europeans coming to work in Britain since 2004 may be 50% higher than previously thought, a BBC Two Newsnight survey suggests.

The survey of 500 Poles in the UK found 64% had signed the workers' register.

Official figures show 375,000 workers have registered since the EU expanded in May 2004 but the survey suggests 187,000 more may have come to the UK.

The Tories said it showed ministers had "dramatically" underestimated the scale of immigration from new EU countries.

And here's the killer bit. The spin a couple of years back was not only that very small numbers would be involved, but that they'd be bright young things who'd stay for a while, make some money and go home.

"The government originally estimated just 15,000 people a year would migrate to the UK from Eastern Europe when it agreed to admit workers from the new accession countries such as Poland, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary and Latvia.

But among the Polish workers questioned, 30% said they had not signed the workers' register and the remaining 6% had never heard of it.

The survey, by the Centre for Research on Nationalism, Ethnicity and Multiculturalism at the Universities of Surrey and Roehampton, also indicated many more Polish people were intending to stay in Britain long-term or even permanently than previously thought.

More than 40% said they wanted to stay at least two years, and 15% - more than one in seven - had already decided to move here permanently.

Only one in three definitely intended to go home within two years. Nearly a third were planning to bring their families to Britain or had already done so."

I've said it before - I'll say it again.

"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."

British Imam Barred From Canada

I wouldn't normally bother with a story like this, but the name rang a small bell.

"Sheik Riyadh ul-Haq, formerly the imam at a Birmingham, England, mosque, who has been accused of vilifying Jews, Hindus, and moderate Muslims, was set to speak at the Youth Tarbiyah conference on June 30, organized by the Islamic Foundation of Toronto.

Canadian Jewish Congress national president Ed Morgan said he heard last week through media reports that Solberg had informed immigration officials that ul-Haq should be barred from entering the country because his views could incite terror and hatred."

I posted a couple of years back about the bizarre goings on at Birmingham Central Mosque, which culminated in two murders.

"The court heard that Sheik Abu Yusuf Riyadhul-Haq, 34, an imam at the Birmingham Central Mosque, had secretly married a woman who became his second wife. But a scandal broke when Shockat Lal, a mosque secretary, had an affair with the woman and she became pregnant, the court was told. As a result Mr Lal was "demonised" by followers of the imam. He and those who supported him were either expelled from the mosque or ostracised."

The imam at the centre of the shenanigans, whose wife was unfaithful, and who was arrested, causing hundreds to demonstrate on the streets of Leicester, appears to be the imam in question.

"19-03-2003 BY NIC RIDLEY Leicester Mercury:

Religious leaders called for calm after an armed raid at the home of a prominent Muslim brought hundreds of people on to the streets.

Armed officers raided a house in Hartington Road, Highfields, yesterday and arrested six men in connection with an attempted murder. Among the men were four sons of respected religious leader Muhammad Gora Pirbhai. One of the sons is understood to be Riyadh Ul Haq, imam of the Central Mosque in Birmingham.

Four of the six arrested men were transferred to West Midlands police for questioning. Two have since been released on police bail.

Officers in Birmingham are questioning two other men in connection with an attempted murder in Small Heath, Birmingham."


I don't know what his speeches are like, but I wouldn't expect him to be soft on adulterers.

The good news is that you can hear him at the (taxpayer-funded) London Islam Expo, along with a galaxy of Respect/SWP/fellow traveller types like Yvonne Ridley, Andrew Murray, Frank 'I'm A Muslim' Gardner, Our Maddy of the Sorrows, Seamus 'Mad Dog' Milne, Jonathan Freedland (does he really look like that ?), Norman Kember and Lindsay German. Tastefully timed to concide with the 7/7 anniversary.

Critically Injured Musician - Green Party Candidate Arrested

Via Tim Blair.

"Billy Leeson, 19, lead singer with rock band Les Incompetents who have supported Pete Doherty's group Babyshambles, is fighting for his life after falling into a coma when his head hit the ground after the punch was thrown.

A man who handed himself in to police appeared in court this morning and was released on bail.

New Zealander Christian Briggs, 30, appeared at Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court today charged with causing grievous bodily harm after he allegedly attacked Billy Leeson in Islington last month.

Dressed in a pale green shirt and grey trousers, a gaunt-looking Briggs spoke only to confirm his name and personal details in the 10-minute hearing.

Briggs, of Haringey, north London, was ordered to stand £10,000 bail, surrender his passport and observe a curfew at his sister's home in Kingston-on-Thames. "

Mr Briggs is a Green Party candidate.

An Iraq "Human Shield".

A man who considers the 7/7 bombings to be 'the chickens coming home to roost'. Unless MI5 did it.

"... you can enjoy your pint of beer in the sun and ignore the murderous actions of your so-called democratic government in faraway lands, but don't go complaining when someone comes looking for some justice in the form of a bomb under your ass."

"Whether this was the act of MI6/MI5 operatives or the so-called 'Al-Qaeda' ..."

A blogger who scorns those who defend accidental killers, but who quotes approvingly Emma Goldman : "Crime is naught but misdirected energy".

7/7 Remembered

From the Ilford Recorder :

"POLICE are investigating the source behind dozens of controversial stickers put up around Ilford Town Centre, just days before the first anniversary of the London bombings.

Bright yellow stickers that read: "Islamic Values Vs British Values" contrasting honesty and charity for Muslims to gambling and homosexuality in Britain have appeared on lampposts, bus stops, phone boxes and road signs in the past week.

Redbridge Racial Equality Council alerted police, amid fears they could provoke tensions in the run-up to the July 7 anniversary tomorrow (Friday).

Extremist Islamic group Al-Ghurabaa produced the stickers, but a spokesman claimed he did not know who put them up."

Their website has the tasteful heading : "Are we ready for another 7/7 ?". Who's we, paleface ?

That 'are we ready' reminds me of something.


"Are you ready, Shahib ?" "Ah-hah"

"Shehzad ?" "Yeah"

"Germaine ?" "Mmm-mm"

"Alright fellas - let's go !"

What Planet Am I On Again ?

Zoe Williams in the Grauniad :

"I would love nothing more than to put such a letter together: I would be particularly interested in getting MPs as signatories, for three reasons: first, they represent the summit of respectability ..."

Is she from the Planet Zog, or am I ?

Would The Last Industrial Worker In The UK Please Turn Out The Lights ?

A Wearside tyre factory, where 585 people worked, is closing its doors for the final time. In April, Goodyear Dunlop announced it was ending production at its Washington factory, a site where tyres had been produced since 1968.The company said it could no longer compete effectively with competitors in Eastern Europe and the Far East.Unions said there had been hopes that the jobs could be saved and they were disappointed at the closure.

Plans to cut 800 jobs in Devon and Cornwall as part of a china clay firm's reorganisation will hit the entire South West economy, MPs and unions say. Imerys said the changes were necessary to protect the future of its business. It is blaming high energy prices, a weak dollar and strong overseas competition for significant losses. More than 700 jobs will go in Cornwall as Imerys consolidates its operations. Up to 85 jobs will go in Devon as the company closes its pit at Lee Moor.

Broad And Pleasant Road News

Syphilis up. Abortions up.

Sexual infection diagnoses have been almost continually rising since the 1990s, with the highest increases in recent years being seen in the 16 to 24 age group.

We obviously need more and earlier sex education.

Another One Breaks Ranks

First the great Frank Field. Now Tony Wright has noticed what's in front of his nose.

Mr Wright said the UK's population had topped 60 million for the first time last year and was expected to rise 12% in the next generation. The rises were equivalent to having a new Oxford, a new Middlesbrough and a new Ipswich every year, he said.

And migration was the main driver, he told the prime minister.

Mr Wright urged Mr Blair to set up a commission to give a cost and benefits analysis about different levels of population, which was being driven up mainly by migrants.

Asked if the government had a population policy, Mr Blair replied: "No, but .."

Tomorrow's "Independent" Editorial Today

Yesterday we reported on the shocking institutional abuse of disabled patients in NHS care homes throughout Cornwall. Once again, a supposedly caring and civilised society turns out to hide shameful treatment of its most vulnerable members.

Take David, for example (not his real name). He suffers from cerebral palsy and was cared for in the Tintagel ward of the newly-built (and award-winning) Ley Line Hospital. What should have been a caring, supportive environment was in fact a waking nightmare of emotional and physical abuse, for which no staff have yet been called to account.

There is action the Government could take which would eliminate such abuses. Compulsory scanning and tests for all expectant mothers would detect the vast majority of the infirmities with which people like David are afflicted. These could then be treated in the womb by compulsory termination. In an age when millions of so-called 'healthy' foetuses are, quite properly, discarded, surely it is an anachronism to allow parents freely to give birth to those who would really be better off dead.


Tomorrow - Our Shame - Why Britain Is Still Discriminating Against The Disabled

Moorhen chicks on the Curate's Pond

Ah, the cycle of nature ! Score for the last fortnight :

2 cockerels and a hen taken by the fox - all pinched off the back lawn around six in the evening. The cheek of it. Obviously feeding cubs. Poor hens are being kept in their runs and I'm cutting down some of the garden greenery to give a clear field of fire from the house.

Six moorhen chicks on the pond - of which two weeks later three or four still remain, despite cat, crows, magpies. Ahhhh ! They get into the hen-run to pinch food, then can't get out, so we've handled most of them.

More ambivalent Muslim opinion.

"The Populus survey for The Times and ITV News has found that more than one in ten thinks that the men who carried out the London bombings of 7/7 should be regarded as “martyrs”. Sixteen per cent of British Muslims, equivalent to more than 150,000 adults, believe that while the attacks were wrong, the cause was right."

Bob Rowthorn speaks the obvious.

"If you repeat something often enough, you can perhaps make people believe it. What you cannot do is turn it from being false into being true. And the Government's claim about the economic benefits of immigration is false. As an academic economist, I have examined many serious studies that have analysed the economic effects of immigration. There is no evidence from any of them that large-scale immigration generates large-scale economic benefits for the existing population as a whole. On the contrary, all the research suggests that the benefits are either close to zero, or negative.

Immigration can't solve the pensions crisis, nor solve the problem of an ageing population, as its advocates so often claim. It can, at most, delay the day of reckoning, because, of course, immigrants themselves grow old, and they need pensions.

The injection of large numbers of unskilled workers into the economy does not benefit the bulk of the population to any great extent. It benefits the nanny-and housecleaner-using classes; it benefits employers who want to pay low wages; but it does not benefit indigenous, unskilled Britons, who have to compete with immigrants willing to work hard for very low wages in unpleasant working conditions.

For low-skilled Britons, the result is that there are only two options: very low pay or unemployment. The economy becomes dependent on a constant influx of immigrants who are willing to accept low pay and poor working conditions. That is what Labour ministers mean when they insist that "public services would collapse without immigrants".

"He very often tells us how glad he is to be alive"

Man recovers after 19-year coma.

"When Terry Wallis’s pick-up truck crashed through a barrier on a mountain road, plunging into a dry river bed, doctors gave the teenager little chance of survival. The accident, which killed one of his companions, left him with severe head injuries, in a coma and paralysed from the neck down.

That was in 1984. Mr Wallis, a farmer’s son from Arkansas, remained in a minimally conscious state (MCS) and outwardly unresponsive for years, until doctors witnessed what they have described as a medical miracle. In 2003, after 19 years, Mr Wallis called out to his mother and asked for a can of Pepsi.

Scientists from Cornell University, New York, believe that a slow process of brain repair and neural reconnection prompted Mr Wallis’s recovery.

A study of the structure of his brain has revealed that neuronal cells in relatively undamaged areas have grown important connections over a period of years."

Hillsborough victim Tony Bland was deliberately starved to death by doctors. Four years later, another Hillsborough 'PVS' victim, Andrew Devine, had recovered enough to be able to communicate.

I'm sure there's a good reason why the people who support starving people like Tony Bland and Andrew Devine to death are the same people who consider that executing murderers is an affront to a civilised society. Just can't quite see what it is.

Aiee !

My daughter set up her blog today. Just a test post. She loves writing, so we shall see.

Two Good Things

Firefox. Why didn't I switch years ago ?

And Windows updates - an increasingly dangerous option for those of us who occasionally do a re-install and need to get the updates all over again.

If you have Netscape or Firefox, update via WindizUpdate. Most impressed.

Racism

The game - same as last time.

It's a little incident before kick-off that caught my attention. As Beckham stepped up to the microphone and started telling us about the evils of racism, my daughter said 'what about people who are racist to us ?' then told me a story.

The day before, Susan took our two youngest up to Ragley Hall near Stratford-on Avon, which has a giant kids adventure playground. Daughter and son were playing when they were approached by two older boys whom she described as 'brown'.

To my son : "What's your name, white chocolate ?"

To my daughter : "What's your name, white pussy ?"

She is nine years old. She didn't get the sexual reference but she knew they weren't trying to be nice. "I ignored them", she said. Probably a good thing I wasn't there.

She, like primary school children all over England, has been taught that racism is something bad that white people do to brown people. The people who teach her grew up in a world where that was just about a feasible approach, but they're educating children who will grow up in a world where they will be the minority in increasingly large areas. By teaching such things they're betraying those kids.

Bulger Killers ...

They're all over the place - Ireland one day, Oz the next.

Blogging will be light until the Project From Hell is safely put to bed.

He Speaks !

The great Frank 'the unthinkable' Field on immigration. Frank is one of those happy few on the left who will accept that fear of crime, the underclass, and benefit dependency are not artefacts produced by a Daily Mail editorial conference, but descriptions of what is. He also appreciates that it is the poor who are the chief victims.

"Mr Field, a former welfare minister, questioned whether this level of immigration was sustainable without "dramatic" changes to the character of the country and hitting poorer areas, which have to absorb migrants.

"This is the most massive transformation of our population. Do we just merely accept this as another form of globalisation? That it doesn't matter where you are, or that you belong to a country and have roots? That we are all just following the jobs?" Mr Field told the BBC News Website.

People who questioned mass immigration were often accused of "playing the race card" but, Mr Field argued, this was "just another way of closing down debate".

The Birkenhead MP added: "There will be economic gains [from immigration] but I am just raising whether any country can sustain the rate of immigration we are now suffering."

Frank, btw, your website is the slowest in human history.

Another Day ...

... another initiative overturned by the courts.

"A key plank of the government's anti-terrorism laws has been dealt a blow by the High Court. A senior judge said control orders made against six men break European human rights laws. Ministers say they will appeal against the ruling. The orders are imposed on people suspected of terrorism but where there is not enough evidence to go to court. They mean suspects can be tagged, confined to their homes, and banned from communicating with others.

In his ruling, Mr Justice Sullivan said control orders were incompatible with Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which outlaws indefinite detention without trial."

The initiative, of course, replaced another initiative. Which was also overturned by the courts.

Slavery Days

Jeremy Black at the SAU blog on :

The beginnings of the Atlantic slave trade.

Expansion.

Eighteenth Century.

Abolition.

Government Control Of Immigration

"Local services across England are coming under huge strain as a result of unprecedented levels of immigration, council chiefs said yesterday.

They accused the Government of failing to take account of the massive influx of migrant workers, especially from eastern Europe, in their financial settlement for local government.

Over the past 18 months, about 9,000 new National Insurance numbers have been issued in Slough, of which just 150 went to British nationals. Yet, in 2004, the Office for National Statistics recorded only 300 international migrants settling in the area."

"Council evidence suggests that the population is continuing to grow. Workers from Poland were the biggest applicants for National Insurance numbers, at 2,561, followed by Somalians, mainly entering from Holland, at 1,193."

The Pub Philosopher has more on Somali migration.

Josephine Rooney Jailed

I posted about Ms Rooney a couple of weeks ago.

"In 10 years, the street's decline has been so rapid that out of 50 houses, only eight are now owner-occupied, the rest have been bought up by absent landlords and converted into cramped bedsits and flats."

Now she's been banged up.

"Josephine Rooney, 69, of Hartington Street, Derby, will spend the next 12 weeks at New Hall jail in Wakefield, West Yorks, but vowed to carry on her fight after she is released.

A fortnight ago she was awarded £1,000 by the Government's Taking a Stand programme for her work in the community where she provides food and drink for the needy.

After a five-minute hearing before magistrates, the district judge, Joanne Alderson, said she was "sadly" left with no option but to impose a suspended sentence handed down last month after Rooney reiterated her refusal to pay. Rooney, looking frail and nervous, was handcuffed and led away."

I love this bit. Think of the number of murders and other crimes committed by people released early from their sentences.

"She will have to serve the full three months because there is no remission on non-payment of fines."

Protcting the public ? Nul point. Protecting the revenue ? Dix point.


(What's happened to Hartington Street is an unintended consequence of Tory legislation which pays housing benefit direct to the landlord. Designed to increase the amount of rented accommodation, it created a class of landlords for whom the main attraction was the guaranteed income stream. The last thing they wanted was a tenant with a job - they'd have to collect the rent themselves. As unemployable drug-users and lowlife move in, so other houses in the street become harder to sell and prices fall - at which point in steps a private landlord to buy the property and move in more benefit recipients. A nice feedback loop, which I observed at close range, selling my late fathers house on a rough estate in County Durham. Private landlords were the only people we had offers from. Bea Campbell wrote a long piece about this phenomenon, focusing on Newcastle and Sunderland, in the Observer some ten years back, but I can't find it - it may not be on the web.)