Naught For Your Comfort

It's that time of year, when we look at the ONS Population Trends.

2003 - 19% of births in England and Wales and 47% of births in London were to mothers themselves born outside the UK.

2004 - 20% of births in England and Wales and 49% of births in London were to mothers themselves born outside the UK.

This year's figures (pdf) are for 2005 - 21% of births in England and Wales and 51% of births in London were to mothers themselves born outside the UK.

The figures come with some commentary. British understatement is not dead.

The increase continues the marked rise in this proportion seen over the last decade: the proportion of births to mothers born outside the United Kingdom has risen from 13 per cent in 1995 to 21 per cent in 2005.

The trend does seem to be upwards.



When only those births that include the father’s details on the registration are considered, 21 per cent of births were to mothers born outside the United Kingdom and 15 per cent of births had both parents born outside the United Kingdom. These two proportions indicate that for a third of overseas-born mothers the child’s father was born in the United Kingdom.

Figure 7 shows that the majority of the increase over the last ten years in the proportion of live births to mothers born outside the United Kingdom is among women in their twenties and early thirties. The percentage of live births to mothers aged 25 to 29 born outside the United Kingdom has more than doubled since 1995 to 25 per cent in 2005.

So it has. It's young 'uns having the babies. Plenty of time to have more.

There's stacks of stuff in the report (a fair bit about migration and ethnicity), much of it gloomy for anyone who believes, as I do, that importing large numbers of people while making no effort to integrate them (indeed, while not even being sure that there is an existing culture to integrate to) is likely to lead to a lack of what's currently called 'community cohesion', with possible adverse consquences ranging from the kind of thing we're seeing in Fiji at present to the kind of thing we saw in the 1947 Punjab.

The fertility rates for the last 100 years are interesting. You can see the great boom after WWI and WWII, then the Sixties baby boom. Then something happens - several things, actually. The Pill, abortion more or less on demand, and the 60s cultural revolution. Fertility (TFR) drops by about 40% between 1957 and 1977, the time my generation should have been having their babies.



I was writing Christmas cards a few days back. While my circle of friends was probably more 'alternative' and 'radical' than most, and while a fair number have had kids, it's still sobering to contemplate such a number of intelligent, brave, creative women, now pushing 50, whose gifts and qualities will die with them.

Fight ! Fight !

Mirror, mirror on the wall - is Lembit or Sian the drunkest party animal of them all ?

More tasteless trash ? Try this.

"This is not a racist issue"

Following on from yesterday's reports of 'grooming' (isn't that what primates do ?) in Oldham, there are also reports from Burnley and Rossendale.

The Evening Telegraph can exclusively reveal girls as young as 12 have been targeted by gangs of men who pay the youngsters in cash, drugs, cigarettes and drink for sexual favours.

Police revealed in the past year, around 50 East Lancashire victims aged under 16 had been identified by special police and social services teams set up to combat the menace but they believe as many as 100 could be involved.

Many of the youngsters go missing from home each week to spend time with men who have groomed them for sex.

Officers said the predators, who initially approach the girls on the street, are predominantly Asian and community leaders have joined the fight to tackle the issue.

In an attempt to stamp out the abuse and help girls who are lured away from home, police in Blackburn, Darwen, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley launched a crackdown called Operation Engage last June but have now made it a permanent policing priority after discovering the extent of the problem.

At the same time police in Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale (Pennine division) ran Operation Fruition to identify the scale of the problem of girls being groomed into sexual exploitation by isolated groups of men.

Muslim leaders have also been holding special seminars at mosques across East Lancashire to raise awareness of the problem.

PC Helen Dean from the Engage team revealed that in the past 12 months, along with Alison Hartley, from Blackburn with Darwen Council's children's services, she has worked with 31 children who have been groomed into this abuse.

PC Emma Shaw, who is dedicated to dealing with all missing from home cases in the Pennine division, has worked with between 15 and 20 girls who had been groomed into sexual exploitation by gangs of men.

But they are only the girls that they had been able to connect with and they believe many more are being victimised.

Since June 2005 police have issued 65 warning letters to men in the Blackburn, Darwen, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley area who have been identified through intelligence for harbouring children away from the care of their home or social services.

So far so bog-standard. You have to pull a wry face at the police response though.

Police stressed, however, that the issue of grooming also involved men, predominantly white, who target girls through the internet.

Blackburn MP Jack Straw today expressed his deep concern and said he would be raising the matter immediately with the Home Office.

He said: "I was frankly unaware of the scale of this problem until the Lancashire Evening Telegraph highlighted it but it is one that we all must now address including the Asian community."

Supt Neil Smith of Lancashire Police said: "This is not a racist issue. It is about the exploitation of vulnerable young girls for sex.

"The majority of cases involve Asian males but there are also a significant proportion of cases involving white men using the internet."

I think that 'predominantly' has been added by reporter Caroline Innes. The police phrase is 'significant proportion'. But the analogy doesn't add up anyway. It's not Asian girls who are being tempted into cars with offers of drink, is it ? Does anyone think white men on the internet are targeting Asian girls ?

And when was the last time a police report on misbehaviour by white people included a rider to the effect that there was plenty of crime committed by minorities ?

What Does A Teacher Do To Get Suspended ?

"selling cigarettes to under-age pupils at the school where she was teaching" - Kent. Not only that, but she'd bought them duty free !

Fiona Forster, 43, of Tunbridge Wells, was booted out of her job at Meopham School in Kent after CCTV film of her allegedly taking cash from pupils in exchange for cigarettes was shown to a panel at General Teaching Council (GTC).

This enterprising woman is now teaching in the private sector.

Attending the Tehran Holocaust conference - Sweden.

"The teacher, identified as Jan Bernhoff, had given a lecture where he alleged that 300,000 Jews died in the Holocaust during World War II as opposed to the number of six million commonly used by academics."

Public lewdness - America. I think it's called indecent exposure here.

Hitting your son's basketball coach - ditto.

"The Westmont superintendent said school officials will need more information about the fight before making a final decision on Harrigan's status." Number of previous bouts ? Age, height and reach ?

Smearing paint on your bottom, applying it to canvas - then putting the video on Youtube.

Thank heavens for the more traditional extra-mural activities.

There's A Small Postette

At Biased BBC.

Lordy ...

Coverage of Ipswich continues to range from the - well, I've not quite got the word for it - to the traditional foolishness which takes me right back. Even Reclaim The Night is returning.

Lenin, like Meaders, like Nick Davies, is spot-on with symptoms, diabolical with analysis.

"The fact that the demand for prostitution is increasing tells us something about the parlous condition of gender relations in this country."

Can't disagree with that, old boy. It's just the diagnosis that's up the Swanee.

The family unit has been the chief way in which the reproduction of labour has been guaranteed under industrial capitalism. The woman's subordinate role in the household and in society has ensured that the exploited male worker ... the Mad Mahdi 'family as capitalist invention' theory.

It's entertaining to read the 153 comments, from people who I'll hazard a guess are rearing about 5 children between them - especially when you consider that his political allies are a bunch of people who know all about the importance of the family - and are highly successful at both raising children in quantity and passing on their culture to them.

Media comment is mainly in the traditional 'aren't we Brits a bunch of sad, hung-up hypocrites when it comes to sex work ?' mode, with a few 'the debate shows how far we have advanced' dissenters. Traditional Guardianista ambivalence is in full effect. As I wrote many a moon back :

Is selling sex in all its forms, from car adverts through Page Three and ladmag shoots to Amy and Lara, a major cause of gang rape, frustration and impotence, and eating disorders (Ms Bunting), ‘violence against women’ (femiluni Julie Bindel), is it just another job - sex work, or is it ‘a girl power thing’ where the exploited are the poor sad male punters (A Good Thing) rather than the girls (A Bad Thing) ?

They still don't know - and they may never.

The other foolishness I've noted is the Saudi arms deal affair. From Shuggy and Paul Anderson on the left to The Lone Voice on the right, horror is the order of the day.

I'd recommend anyone commenting on this issue to take a look at Anthony Sampson's book The Arms Bazaar. Bribery and large arms contracts have been together for a very long time. If we don't bribe others will. Even senior people in Western democracies can be bribed.

Now it's not unreasonable to say - no. We shouldn't bribe. Let others do it - we won't. Fine. If you don't want to bribe, get out of the arms trade. Which means closing a large chunk of what remains of Britain's technically advanced manufacturing industry. And in this case it also means a rupture with a powerful (we've sold them all that kit) oil-rich nation bordering Iraq. You can see why HMG might blink at this.

Amazingly, the most logical contribution I've seen on this comes from BNP blogger John Bull.

I have no idea whether BAE paid certain Saudi royals a 'commission' or not, and now that the inquiry has been dropped we shall never know. But so what if they did? How was any Briton harmed by this? The point of the law is - or should be - to protect Britons from harm (either physical or financial). Even if BAE did bribe the Saudis, so what? How did any Briton suffer by this?

As I have said repeatedly, British governments are elected by Britons for Britons; it is not the responsibility of the British government to eliminate corruption thoughout the globe. The fact is that if we want to win foreign business we have to adapt to foreign business practices. It is absurd of us to try to impose our mores and morals on foreigners, just as it would be outrageous if they tried to impose theirs on us. Most foreign countries accept that 'sweeteners' are part and parcel of any business deal. If we want to sell to foreigners - which obviously we do - then why not accept this tradition? How does it harm us?

This attempt to apply British law in foreign lands is another example of the Left's attempt to impose its values around the world. Thank goodness on this occasion they have been rebuffed. So three cheers for the Saudis who have stood up for their own culture, their own values and their own traditions.

I'm not sure three cheers is the order of the day. But I take his general point.


UPDATE - the mighty Littlejohn thunders across the Portman Road turf, studs up.

I know this might sound frightfully callous in the current hysterical, emotional climate, but we're not all guilty.

We do not share in the responsibility for either their grubby little existences or their murders. Society isn't to blame.

That's just the warm-up ...

The tortuous twistings of the sisterhood over the past week have been a joy to behold. The 30-year-old Spare Rib T-shirts have been brought out of mothballs and we've been treated to the All Men Are Bastards/Rapists/Murderers mantra from assorted Glendas who ought to be old enough to know better.

We've heard the well-rehearsed arguments for legalised and regulated prostitution, as if we were living under the Taliban. The fact is, we've already got de facto legal brothels on every High Street.

They're call saunas or massage parlours.

When Blair gets back from saving the Middle East, don't be surprised if he turns up at the funeral of one of these unfortunate women to deliver a lip-trembling, tear-stained eulogy: "She was the People's Prostitute".

Lib Dem Immigration Policy

Is to replace ageing Native Brits with cheap Eastern Europeans.



(Now on special two for one offer)

Apologies

Light blogging due to

a) Christmas present getting

b) wedding anniversary. Gosh. It's flown by.

c) sealing a wooden bedroom floor - not so time-consuming, but emptying the room and finding somewhere to put everything was. Last coat tomorrow inshallah then get the curtains up and move the bed in. Just need to find a carpet, about 8 by 8, burgundy-ish, with a border, to put the bed on ... rest of the room will be bare boards with a few rugs. Old Habitats die hard.

d) work

in that order. A pity when there's so much to blog about.