The Labour Revolution

(idea by Martin Kelly, lousy graphic by Laban)

"No English Workers Have Been Involved In Making These Asda Sausages"

British workers have been turned away from jobs in a local factory – for not speaking Polish. Cooked meat manufacturer Forza AW effectively barred anyone but Poles for applying for jobs on its production line in East Anglia by insisting all staff speak the language fluently. The company claimed it was necessary as all health and safety training was conducted in Polish.

But Forza – a major supplier of Asda supermarkets – was last night accused of anti-British discrimination because of the adverts.

Forza’s advert was sent out via email by East Anglia-based employment agency OSR Recruitment earlier this month.

Headed ‘Immediate factory work available!!!!’ it continued: ‘If you are available or have any friends available, work is starting tomorrow for induction training.

‘Ongoing factory work (meat production) for 4-5 months, shifts are 7am-5pm or 9am-7pm.

‘Transport provided. Applicants must speak Polish. Please call asap!!!!!!’

The advert was signed Katrina Massingham, the company’s ‘industrial team leader’ and it was dispatched to hundreds of potential applicants on the firm’s books.

But wait ! It might just be all an unfortunate error !

A reporter listened in as the 31-year-old man called OSR to ask about the jobs last Tuesday. The first question he was asked was: ‘Are you Polish?’ When he said no, but could speak the language ‘a little’, he was told: ‘Actually, you have to be fluent because the health and safety training is all done in Polish.’ By Friday, however, after The Mail on Sunday rang again several times and got the same response, the company appeared to have second thoughts about the wisdom of the advert.

An OSR employee gave a different version to a Polish-speaking reporter saying: ‘Actually, you don’t have to be Polish, but it helps.’

When another reporter posed as an English applicant, Ms Massingham told him that all the jobs had been filled but that the language requirement was ‘not too important now’.

She added: ‘For some reason the training was in Polish but we’re trying to get them to change it, because it’s a bit silly, really’.

Yesterday, Mr Max Hilliard claimed the advert’s wording was a mistake and due to a ‘breakdown in communications’ between his firm and OSR Recruitment. He said he was unaware of the ‘Must speak Polish’ clause until The Mail on Sunday alerted him to it.

‘In normal circumstances, this ad would have been vetted and the error removed,’ said the 51-year-old, who is Forza’s chief executive and principal shareholder, owning 60 per cent of the company.

‘We employ many English workers as well as Poles and Lithuanians, though I can’t give you exact figures ..."

Phew. Almost thought for a moment there was something to be worried about.

New Children's Commissioner Is Childless

Maggie Atkinson

Born in Barnsley, Dr Atkinson studied at Cambridge University.

She taught English and drama for 10 years before moving into a national training and advisory role on the national curriculum in the late 1980's.

She became director of children's services in Gateshead in 2003.

She was president of the Association of Directors of Children's Services until March 2008, and is currently chair of the National Expert Group on the Children's Workforce and national chair for the new Centre of Excellence in Outcomes.

She is married with two adult stepchildren.

Ms Atkinson has just replaced the unlamented Al Aynsley Green as Children's Commissar for England. Appointed apparently as a non-campaigner by Ed Balls (who must have one of the most annoying voices in politics, btw), she's opened up in fine style by announcing that the Bulger killers shouldn't have been prosecuted :

“The age of criminal responsibility in this country is ten — that’s too low, it should certainly be moved up to 12. In some European countries it’s 14. People may be offenders but they are also children. Even the most hardened of youngsters who have committed some very difficult crimes are not beyond being frightened.”

I like that 'difficult'. Seems to have been all too easy for Thompson and Venables (among others).

“What they did was exceptionally unpleasant and the fact that a little boy ended up dead is not something that the nation can easily forget."

"Ended up" ? Any human agency involved in that, or was it an act of God ? "Exceptionally unpleasant" ? I'd use that phrase to describe something like a 10-year old defecating in the school book cupboard (which somebody did do at my primary school - the teacher burst into tears), not abduction, torture, sexual assault and murder.

It is wrong, Dr Atkinson insists, to describe a child as evil. “None of us is born a good person or an evil person. The backgrounds from which we come, and whether we are nurtured and secure, will shape our character. The adults who role-model for us — or don’t — will change who we become, for better or worse. I’m far more a believer in nurture than nature.”

They're depraved on account of they're deprived !

Now that's true up to a point - most of the disastrous kids come from disaster homes. But (alas) lots of kids are brought up by their lone mothers, and some of those lone mothers are alcoholic, and some of those lone mothers' kids run wild - yet not all of them kill toddlers. Robert Thompson and Jon Venables shared their upbringing with brothers and sisters, and they've managed not to abduct and kill any little ones. Why did Robert and Jon ?

Ms Atkinson, as a believer in the Blank Slate, is a follower of the Utopian Vision - otherwise she'd never have got the job.

By strange chance, a week or so before another childless leftie blogger of a certain age had bemoaned the evil tabloids and their punitive agenda, agreeing with the sentiment :

"Whatever Venables has done he will still need our support."

Prompting Laban to respond :

Shorter Leftie Blogger : “If it wasn’t for those nasty tabloids, no one would ever hate people who abduct and kill toddlers for fun”.

I think we can cut this more simply. The people who feel visceral loathing for Thompson and Venables are called ‘parents’, and every one of them has

a) experienced that awful hole in the stomach when your little one goes missing in the shopping centre – and it happens so easily! – and you find them after seconds or minutes of panic, but that sick feeling is not ever forgotten …
b) seen a shot or video of a little figure tottering through the mall, trustingly holding the hand of the boy who will torture and kill him.

The people who don’t feel that are called ‘non-parents’.

Our game, our rules. In an ideal world only parents would be allowed to vote on any issues affecting children.

We lost our youngest once at Knutsford Services northbound on a dark Friday night. Not a good place to lose a small child. Running from one cashier to another :

"Have you seen a little girl - she's three - in a pink dress ?"

You never forget the feeling even though I can't, thank God, reproduce it in my head. It's too physical. It's a feeling Maggie Atkinson will never know - which is why, in a sane world, her views on child killers would carry slightly less authority than Jon Venables' mother's views - or any mother's views.

Target Culture

When you set service targets and reward managers for hitting those targets, you create an incentive to fiddle the stats.

In some areas - say call centre response times, where x% of calls must be answered within y seconds, it's difficult (though not impossible- you can just drop a call to pick up another one, or you can be more innovative) to fiddle the stats unless you've got a bent IT guy.

In other settings you can be more creative. The NHS is renowned for its achievements in this area.

So, you think the staff and managers might be bending the stats ? Why not bring in an outside firm to test the systems anonymously? That's what Royal Mail did.

People sometimes say there's no initiative and invention in middle management at a large corporation. I wouldn't say that myself.

The unnamed source told Postcomm that several Royal Mail staff had found a way of cheating the supposedly independent system of checking mail delivery times, which was carried out by an external market research company... By intercepting the "test" letters, postal workers were able to hijack the performance assessment by making sure they were prioritised and delivered bang on time, giving an artificially high figure for the number of letters and parcels arriving on time.

Managers would note down the name and address on the envelopes, and in some cases illegally open the mail to find addresses of other volunteer panellists. The addresses would then be entered into computer spreadsheets, listed by postcode area. In sorting and delivery offices, panellists were known as “key customers” and given top priority to ensure their post was delivered in time, to hit the performance targets. In some cases individual pillar boxes were also earmarked to make sure they were emptied as late as possible, to ensure the panellists did not miss the last post.

In the Motherwell delivery office a notice pinned to the wall told staff to bring any mail addressed to two particular people to the attention of the delivery manager's office. One of the addressees was a panellist. Postal workers also learnt to look out for "suspicious" mail. In some cases postmen realised they were delivering "test" mail when they delivered driving licences to people who did not have cars.

Postcomm found that Royal Mail delivery office managers were “accustomed to looking for (test mail) and showing other colleagues how to identify items of test mail”. In some cases, managers photocopied panellists’ mail and sent the copies to other managers. One manager from Scotland is even thought to have travelled to Manchester to brief his colleagues on how they could get involved in the scam.

I imagine the fact that the monitoring was by outsiders also stimulated group cohesion and company loyalty (sort of) in the Royal Mail chaps - and I bet they were chaps. It could almost become a game, outwitting them.


Just shows what can happen when you get the incentives right ;-)


No steering group needing reports and minutes, no sponsoring senior director, no project plans and milestones, no internal auditing, no box-ticking to show how actions are aligned with the latest version of the corporate culture - just spontaneous, organic co-operation at all levels and the required outcomes are achieved. Almost like the Marxist vision of how industry would run itself in an ideal Socialist society. Fantastic.

Friday Night Music (Time Lapse Edition)

I think this one speaks for itself.



(the inspiration, if that's the word, is here)

Plus Ca (Spare) Change ...

Harold Wilson's 1967 Labour Government. Sterling crisis followed by devaluation. Jamaican musicians (a young Bob Marley, no less) comment.

"This devaluation (pound get a blow)
Will cause an eruption (pound get a blow)" :

Fellow-Jamaicans the Bleechers went as far as suggesting that "Pound Paper" should be replaced by dollars and cents. Rank treason IYAM. I always wondered why Lee Perry hadn't got a knighthood.


By 1976 Labour were back in power under Jim Callaghan, and there was another sterling crisis. Once more there was comment from down yard way, via the late Vivian 'Yabby You' Jackson.

By the next sterling crisis in 1992, the Tories' Black Wednesday, Jamaicans had lost interest in UK events. The Mother Country had become the Mother****** Country and West Indian musicians no longer titled themselves Sir, Lord , Count or Duke.

So we're unlikely to get much comment on current sterling woes.

Never mind. In the finest tradition of the Green movement, Laban has recycled Yabby You's 1977 tribute to the collapsing pound.

"Did you read it in the news today ?
The pound has fallen down"

Good News or Bad News ?

"Jon Venables could be murdered if identity revealed - judge"

Is that an argument for or against ?

Yazza - She's At It Again ...

I must confess that I haven't noticed an enormous surge in anti-Muslim rhetoric or action by "the establishment" recently. Indeed, after 9/11 and 7/7 their response was to visit mosques, give them extra police protection, talk a lot about a religion of peace and even define terrorism as "anti-Islamic activity".

But then I'm not as close to the establishment as Yasmin Alibhai Brown. Apparently the Chilcot enquiry, the sentencing of various hotheads for rioting, vandalism and attacking the police during a London demo, the Channel Four documentary on Islamic 'entryism' in East London politics, and, er ... er ... - well anyway , as Shameless Milne puts it, this tide of anti-Muslim hatred is a threat to us all.

The Yazztastic One cranks up the threat level as only she can. After all, I doubt that Shameless hangs out with many Muslims outside of his political activity. And I bet he doesn't pray before starting his column.

I can see that for the British establishment Muslims are contemptible creatures, devalued humans. As I prayed before starting this column I felt tears stinging my eyes and my face was burning as if I had been slapped many times over. Do they expect me to turn the other cheek? Millions of other Muslims must have felt what I did. And some may well go on to do things they shouldn't. Their acts will intensify anti-Muslim prejudices and will be used to justify injustice. The cycle is vicious and unrelenting.

Oh dear.

Once again at weddings and birthday parties, in quiet, tranquil mosques, at dinner tables across the land, including those of millionaire Muslims, I am hearing murmurs of trepidation and disquiet – voices kept low, sometimes vanishing into whispers, just in case; you never know if they will break down the door. These people are, like myself, well incorporated into the nation's busy life. Some own restaurants and businesses, others work in the City or law firms and chambers. At one gathering a frightfully posh, Muslim public school boy (aged 14), an excellent cricketer, said in his jagged, breaking voice: "I will never live in this country after finishing my education. They hate us. They'll put us all in prison. Nothing we do is OK. Do you think I am wrong Mrs Yasmin?" No I don't, though his hot young blood makes him intemperate.

Where do I start?

No, where do I start ? I can just see the Met top brass salivating at the thought of breaking down a few Muslim millionaires' front doors, can't you ? Excellent career move.

We're back in familiar Yazza territory :

"This week, I have been at three events where the majority of people in the audience were educated, sharp Muslims, some exceedingly rich and good friends with key politicians and Prince Charles. Guantanamo Bay and Iraq are topics that now madden even these establishmentarians.

One gentleman took my elbow, shuffled me to a discreet corner and whispered 'I have been here for 40 years, dined with royalty. Today, if I was young, I would go straight to Bin Laden. Mr Blair is a war criminal. Don't put my name down, but tell him we detest him'".

One of the things I love about Yazza is that she shoots straight from the hip. Can't say we've not been told. Pray God that she is, while wonderful, a self-centred hysteric with a 56-pound chip on her shoulder, unrepresentative of the wider Muslim community. Because if she's right that millions of Muslims feel anything like she does, there is indeed cause for concern.

Glorify the Father, The Spirit And The Son

Recorded in Toddington Church, Gloucestershire, though I can't hear any steam trains.


Ex-Sinfonye operative Jocelyn Montgomery (nee West) has some impressive (if somewhat gothic - that Nick Cave has a lot to answer for) new music out - Salt Birds. Just be careful you don't head too far in this direction, m'dear. As Lovecraft would say 'that way lies madness and the void'.

More Flag-Flappers

Remember Gordon 'Union Jack' Brown ?

Remember when 'Britishness' turned out only to apply to England ?

It looks as if our rulers are giving up on 'Britishness' and worrying more about 'Englishness'. John Denham MP on England :

"the next election will be determined by which party has the most convincing story about our society and our country. Who has the most convincing tale about where we have come from: and the most positive and optimistic story about where we go next."

So it's all a matter of good PR, you see. The trouble is that the most convincing tale about where we have come from will definitely not provide a positive and optimistic story about where we go next.

These stories work because we have a sense of who we are; what our society represents. Put a different way, people ask politicians to pass the ‘people like us’ test.

Keep digging.

"... at once progressive and patriotic ... Billy Bragg ... Morrissey ... multi-ethnic identity ... white working class ... disconnect ... zzzz"

This is the nub. Been here before, of course.

The problem of multi-culturalism was not its insistence on respect for those of different cultures, or of their freedoms to express themselves as they wish: it was the neglect of the glue that binds us together; it was the failure to recognise a multi-cultural society can only work if there is equal engagement and activity in building and developing shared values and the framework of a shared identity which enables us to be multicultural within a cohesive society.

Or to put it another way, the problem of multi-culturalism comes when people don’t have shared values and identity. In other words, one common culture.

Someone tell me - what does ‘multi-’ mean again ?

PS - one of the comments at Socialist Unity - you can see the confrontation here :

At yesterday’s confrontation, the EDL demo was composed overwhelmingly of young working class men. The UAF demo consisted mainly of palpably middle class students.

Which group is “our class”?

Another comment :

It was said the EDL chanted at UAF ‘you're not English anymore’, and this much to Mark P’s annyance is actually true. Once you become a socialist your first self identity is as a worker, part of an international class, that has more in common with workers from abroad than with bosses here.

I wouldn't mind that so much were it true. But the trouble is, the UK left mostly "has more in common with workers from abroad than with workers here."

Words Fail Me

Passing sentence, Judge Beckett told the two 15-year-olds that in determining the punishment part of their sentences he took account of their age, and the fact that the boy who struck the fatal blow had been doing well at school.

Compare and Contrast

The United Kingdom - from Bedfordshire council's enthralling document "Dealing with Racist Representations on Gypsies and Travellers"

Not only is it fair and morally responsible to treat racist representations seriously: it is also a legal requirement.
Romany Gypsies and Irish Travellers are recognised in law as a distinct ethnic group. The Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985 requires any material which is defamatory or likely to incite racial hatred or contempt, and information the disclosure of which is prohibited by law, to be marked 'confidential' and not disclosed to the public.

Anyone who, either in writing or verbally, objects on racist grounds to a planning proposal is potentially contravening one of these Acts, by applying pressure to discriminate.

How do you define a racist representation?
In general terms, a racist representation is one which includes words, phrases or comments which are likely:
• to be offensive to a particular racial or ethnic group
• to be racially abusive, insulting or threatening
• to apply pressure to discriminate on racial grounds
• to stir up racial hatred or contempt
The context in which such words, phrases or comments are used must be considered carefully, in order to ascertain their true meaning and effect.

EXAMPLES OF RACIST REPRESENTATIONS (S31 of 1976 ACT) [applying pressure to discriminate]
• I object to the proposed Gypsy & Travellers site because these undesirable people
will damage my neighbourhood with their littering and crime will increase.
• If it is approved the number of gypsies in the area will make house prices fall. Put
them somewhere away from the normal community.
• The council should be more responsible and look after respectable peoples interests.

And we see the policy in action - here in Devon :

Mr Lee's objection stated that problems were caused by the number of families using another permanent site for vehicle wrecking. Mr Lee also highlighted that the police were called to the site a number of times and livestock was regularly let loose on his land.

The authority replied: "I have to tell you that if the council receives any more racist representations from you, this matter will be referred to the Commission for Racial Equality or the police for investigation."

And in Bedfordshire :

When residents were asked to provide feedback on council plans to build traveller camps on their doorstep they dutifully responded. More than 3,000 homeowners filled in forms outlining their views, many raising concerns over a possible increase in noise, traffic, rubbish and a detrimental effect on property prices.

However, such objections were not appreciated by Mid-Bedfordshire District Council, which partially or fully rejected nearly nine in ten of the replies for including comments 'of a racist nature'.

Meanwhile, across the pond, at the Official Portal for the State of Georgia, Governor's Office for Consumer affairs :

Irish Travelers Perpetuate a Tradition of Fraud

Around the time that schools let out, individuals known as Irish Travelers load up their pick-up trucks and take their show on the road. Sadly, their business is not a very entertaining one and can cost you way more than a ticket to the Big Top. These descendants of Irish immigrants live in nomadic clans and make their living by perpetrating home improvement fraud and selling substandard machinery at huge mark-ups.

While there are several communities of Irish travelers throughout the South, the largest is an enclave located just outside North Augusta, South Carolina. With the exception of their “marks”, Travelers have little contact with outsiders. Generally, in the spring, they spread out throughout the eastern seaboard and beyond.

Travelers go door-to-door, often targeting the elderly. They usually drive unmarked pick-up trucks with out-of-state plates, often from South Carolina. They are pavers, roofers, painters, repairmen who just happen to have left-over materials from a previous job, allowing them to offer huge discounts, but only if you act now. You will rarely receive a written contract from them, and if you do, the contact information will have only a toll-free number and a post office box, making it impossible to track down the conman when the homeowner discovers the inferior quality of the workmanship and materials.

Hmm. Quite a difference.








(via a comment replying to the Capitalists Nick Drew's point 5 in the following list, an attempt to answer the question 'why do we let politicians lie to us?'.

1) in most people the Will to Truth is very much weaker than the Will to Power (Nietzsche passsim)and several less exalted things besides, including

- the Will to an Easy Life
- the Will to Not Rocking The Boat (Homer Simpson passim)

being untrue doesn't count as much of an objection in the face of many other considerations

2) people for whom the Will to Truth is strong are generally Trouble-makers and hence outcasts, easily ignored / ostracised / burned at the stake

3) human beings are geared up to defend the Holy Lie (whatever it may be at any given time), using strategies like double-think, or shouting lalalalala very loudly, etc etc

4) why single out politicians ? Aristotelian physic is laughably false but it ruled the roost for centuries, through a combination of Church endorsement/ enforcement, and a complete absence of empirical curiosity / regard for consistency etc

5) many truths are deeply uncomfortable / embarrassing / infra dig. There are things one might just about get away with in the comments column of a blog, that are 100% true, and at the same time could not be voiced by any mainstream politician. This being the case, why do we even expect truth from them ?

6) despite all experience, we have a huge subliminal propensity to believe that, if a public figure can bring himself to state something as fact, or a newspaper to report it, it is probably true

7) tabloid journos have tapped into, and mastered, these phenomena - the doctrine of the reverse ferret, e.g. They make money from it. NuLab has tapped into tabloid journo-wisdom (Campbell etc al) and deploys the brazen lie, the shameless U-turn etc etc with confidence born of mastery

I could go on ... but hey, it's Saturday morning !)

UPDATE - the Georgia Consumer site really is rather good. From their page on scams to watch out for, this innovative (to me, anyway) Nigerian 419 fraud :

They met on a dating website just before Valentine's Day 2005. Richie described himself as "loving, caring and hard-working." His photo, of a handsome, bearded man in a cheek-to-cheek snuggle with a cat, sold Theresa Smalley on the "loving and caring" part. Richie explained "hard-working" in the first of their many online chats.

"He said he was from Massachusetts, but [that he] was supervising a construction project in Nigeria," says Smalley, a supermarket cashier in Middlefield, Ohio. Weeks into daily instant messaging, she knew she had lost her heart to Richie. By April she had also lost $2,700 to him.

Richie claimed he was paid in U.S. postal money orders and was having trouble cashing them at Nigerian banks. "He asked if he could mail me his paychecks and then I could wire him the money," says Smalley. "He even offered me some money for doing it, which, of course, I refused to take."

Over two weeks she deposited two paychecks in her bank account and wired the money to Nigeria; she wired a third payment to resolve what Richie called a "visa problem" so he could return to the United States and they "could finally meet."

Then the bank called. It seems Richie's deposited money orders were authentic. But they were worth only $20 each—they had been chemically washed and altered to read $950.

I like the touch with the cat. These guys are brilliant marketers. Mind, I'm almost inclined to believe she deserves it :

"The bank said I was responsible for the money I wired; it was everything I had," says Smalley, a divorced grandmother and college student pursuing a degree in social work.

Who's The Criminal Here ?

A landlord who lets people smoke in his pub ?

Or a smackhead who steals Poppy Appeal tins from shop counters, hiding them in his daughter's pram (his pregnant 'partner' nicks them, too) ?

The State gives its verdict.

Sentencing Michael Bailey at Oxford Crown Court last week, Judge Julian Hall said he was not going to jail him because the amount of money stolen was 'very little'. He told him: 'One's first reaction is to be quite horrified but I have to stand back a little bit and put it into perspective, having in mind the total amount of money involved is very little and why you committed these offences. It does seem to me they were drugs-driven. I'm prepared to suspend the sentence of imprisonment you so richly deserve.'

























At the same court last week pregnant Sabrina Burton was also let off the hook after she admitted stealing a poppy tin from a Londis shop in London Road on November 6. She also admitted stealing a MS charity box from Frog Orange in Windmill Road on the same day and attempting to steal another poppy tin from a shop on November 9. Judge Hall told her: 'It's the sort of case where everyone has a sense of outrage that you should do this - "how could anyone do something as mean as this?" - but I have to keep some sense of proportion. The monies taken were obviously fairly given for good causes, but they cannot have been huge amounts. I will give you a chance to put your life back in order. Your baby deserves it, if nothing else. It will do your baby the power of good if you keep off the drugs.'

A former pub landlord yesterday became the first person to be jailed in connection with the smoking ban.

Nick Hogan, 43, was sentenced to six months in prison for refusing to pay a fine imposed for flouting the legislation.

Why Aren't The Bank of Scotland Frauds ...

as documented by Ian Fraser, being picked up and run with by bloggers of left and right ? Fraser has loads of stuff - absolutely top grade journalism.

In the light of the many dodgy dealings of BoS staff, the unsolved murder of business manager Alistair Wilson raises unpleasant possibilities. Maybe the police need forensic accountants rather than DNA samples.

Here's the One Voice group for the victims of one set of frauds - Vavasseur.

The almost unbelieveable - but true - story of BoS executive Lynden Scourfield and BoS Reading is here. The basic modus operandi seems to be

a) a company (in all innocence) approaches BoS Reading branch for help

b) BoS recommend firms use 'turnaround consultants' Quayside Corporate Services, or else appoint Quayside personnel onto their boards as directors. Threats to withdraw lending if firms are reluctant to accept this advice.

c) once the nominees are in place, BoS hand over large loans.

d) nominees extract as much cash as possible while driving the businesses into bankruptcy, often picking up the distressed assets themselves at firesale prices. Small business owners lose everything.

You couldn't make this up. The FSA stinks to high heaven for its failure to nail the perpetrators.

Apparently the Reading branch of the Bank of Scotland is "with you all the way". But they never said where to.

And Another One ...

(an occasional series on the phenomenon of urban hipsters, right-on rebels or PC exemplars who for whatever reason need to get away from the vibrant multicultural melting pot of the city to a leafy, white and conservative area).

It may not be so leafy or conservative (in fact Fremantle is a leftie's dream city - Green MP and all), but I forgot this one - once never-off-the-box Ben Elton has 'done a Darcy' and gone to Australia.

Can't work it out - he donated all that cash to the Labour Party, yet this son of Catford seems not to like the end result.

I was under the illusion that Australia was a lot more diverse (in the UK sense) than it actually is. All the Sydney strife about Cronulla and 'uncovered meat' might create the impression of a UK situation. In fact the Aussies' insistence that immigrants bring with them from the old country useful things like degrees and in-demand skills means that 'Asians' in Oz are 'predominantly Chinese, Vietnamese, Filipino and Indian'. Only 19,000 of the population, for example, were born in Pakistan.

I don't get the impression, either, that there's a huge disconnection between the birthrates of 'native' Aussies and those of incomers - though I haven't seen the figures.

Elton's choice of Fremantle is more diverse (in an Australian sense) than most :

"For a city of small size, Fremantle is very diverse. Only 64% of the population was born in Australia. The largest overseas-born population groups come from the United Kingdom, Italy, New Zealand, Ireland and Germany. There are also sizeable Portuguese(Madeiran) and Croatian communities."

Hmm.

A Small Postette

At Biased-BBC.

Friday Night Is Music Night (finger in ear edition)

I mentioned among my many favourite female singers Nico and "another Anglo-Saxon princess with a harmonium, folkie Helen Watson of Muckram Wakes."

Here - my video response to John Martyn's Spencer.




I also added their Squire of Tamworth and Harry Belafonte's Suzanne - much better than the Leonard Cohen dirge. And Ms Watson has changed her name, but is still a princess.

"failing to show a commitment to equality and diversity"

I'm just wondering how the NHS suspension of Christian nurse Caroline Petrie in Somerset (for offering to pray for a patient - which apparently shows a failure of 'commitment to equality and diversity') sits with this NHS poster in Tower Hamlets.
















(the poster is in the news because Dr Anwara Ali, a local councillor as well as NHS pinup, has defected from Labour to the Tories)

If wikipedia is correct, the Arabic phrase Assalamu Alaikum ('peace be upon you'), while sometimes used by Arab Christians and Jews, is essentially a Muslim greeting.

Still, mustn't carp - she could well have been in a hijab or burka. Just along the road in Brick Lane people are eagerly awaiting the installation of their hijab gates, part of a council-funded 'cultural trail' which starts at a sixty-foot steel minaret affixed to the Brick Lane Mosque.

A spokeswoman for the council said the concept behind the arch was "loosely based on the sculptural form of a headscarf, reflecting the many cultural backgrounds that have occupied and sought refuge in and around Brick Lane over the centuries".

Using planning-gain funds paid to the council following the development of Bishops Square and Spitalfields market, the trail is intended to bring more tourism into the area and smarten it up. But locals complain that the focus has been too much on the Bangladeshi community, which makes up a third of the Tower Hamlets population.

At the centre of the trail is a 29 metre high minaret that has been attached to the Brick Lane mosque, a grade II listed building originally built in 1742 as a Huguenot church, then converted into a synagogue and now the Brick Lane jamme masjid [mosque]. Tower Hamlets council says the structure "is not a minaret" but a "large steel art sculpture".

A Heartwarming Tale

I was late when I first met my clients, the Lipkin family, outside my office. I was very late. I couldn't believe I was late.

I felt like an imposter. Maybe I was an imposter. I had dressed as professionally as I could: a sophisticated sports jacket, slicked-back gelled hair, elegant briefcase. My straightened posture exuded the charismatic confidence of a seasoned attorney. In my mind, at least.

I extended a hand and introduced myself to a family that was about to have their home foreclosed upon.

I was hoping they would never guess that despite being a licensed attorney two years out of law school, I was utterly paralyzed with fear—and earnestly praying to Allah that my potential clients were not about to call me out as an incompetent charlatan, punch me in the face, storm out of the office, and call the state bar seeking to disqualify me.

I was the guy who was going to save these people from being evicted from their own home? Who was I kidding?

In reality, "my law office" was actually my friend's office, which he'd lent to me so that I could meet these clients. The classy jacket had been purchased at a clearance sale in an outlet store at the Great Mall in Milpitas. The gel was the last remnant of a decaying and potentially expired bottle I'd probably had since college but never found the opportunity to use. The briefcase was a gift from my relatives in Pakistan—who, much like the rest of my family, were thoroughly shocked that I had passed the bar exam and become a licensed attorney. My business cards had been printed for free by Vistaprint, and despite having a professional front side featuring my name in bold letters and the words ATTORNEY AT LAW, the back side glared BUSINESS CARDS ARE FREE AT WWW.VISTAPRINT.COM!

Anyone who can make a US attorney into a sympathetic figure is surely a talented writer - but is he a talented lawyer? Wajahat Ali's first case.

Best Educated Generation In History ...

The "Blair generation" will be the best educated in history, the school standards minister, David Miliband, promised yesterday.

My daughter's homework sheet ....